Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2018

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2018 will proceed according to rules most recently amended in December 2016. As in the past, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) will vote by mail to select from a ballot of recently retired players, with results to be announced in January 2018.

The three voting panels that replaced the more broadly defined Veterans Committee following a 2010 rules change were replaced by a new set of four panels in 2016. The Modern Baseball Committee will convene in December 2017 to select from a ballot of retired players and non-playing personnel who made their greatest contributions to the sport between 1970 and 1987.

Starting with this election, all BBWAA members who submit ballots will have their votes made public. The BBWAA voted at the 2016 Winter Meetings to make this change. Previously, ballots were anonymous, although voters could make their choices public if they wanted to. Under the new policy, ballots will be made public one week after the results are announced; voters remain free to reveal their choices at any time.

Another recent rules change, announced in 2015, tightened the qualifications for the BBWAA electorate. Beginning with the 2016 election, eligible voters must not only have 10 years of continuous BBWAA membership, but also be currently active members, or have held active status within the 10 years prior to the election. A BBWAA member who has not been active for more than 10 years can regain voting status by covering MLB in the year preceding the election. As a result of the new rule, the vote total in 2016 decreased by 109 from the previous year, to 440.

The ballot will include two categories of players:

Players eligible for the first time are: Rod Barajas, Miguel Batista, Geoff Blum, Miguel Cairo, Chris Carpenter, Aaron Cook, Francisco Cordero, Juan Cruz, Johnny Damon, Brian Fuentes, Bill Hall, Willie Harris, Liván Hernández, Orlando Hudson, Aubrey Huff, Jason Isringhausen, Nick Johnson, Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, Adam Kennedy, Carlos Lee, Brad Lidge, Rodrigo López, Mike MacDougal, Hideki Matsui, Kevin Millwood, Guillermo Mota, Jamie Moyer, Will Ohman, Vicente Padilla, Carl Pavano, Scott Podsednik, Juan Rivera, Scott Rolen, J. C. Romero, Johan Santana, Brian Schneider, Ben Sheets, Jeff Suppan, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Kip Wells, Dan Wheeler, Jack Wilson, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano.

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