With the 16 members of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee scheduled to meet Sunday, the first day of MLB’s 2025 winter meetings, and possibly elect the first members of the 2026 Hall of Fame class, most of the attention has been on the two most famous names on the ballot.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are once again up for induction. And while much of the discussion has focused on whether their alleged ties to performance-enhancing drugs should continue to be held against them, there are six other names on the ballot who merit Hall consideration of their own.
With that in mind, we’re making the cases for three other former players who could get the call to Cooperstown this weekend.
Carlos Delgado
On the surface, Carlos Delgado lacks the traditional accolades associated with Hall of Famers. He made only two All-Star Games across his 17-year career. He won three Silver Slugger awards but never won an MVP, coming closest in 2003, when he finished a close runner-up to Alex Rodriguez. And though Delgado performed quite well in his lone trip to October with the Mets in 2006 (1.199 OPS), his lack of experience on baseball’s biggest stage made it difficult for his subtle star power to stand out relative to his peers. These shortcomings — plus the unfortunate timing of his debuting on a particularly crowded ballot in 2015 — help explain why he received just 3.8% of the vote on the BBWAA ballot, falling below the 5% support required to stay on for another year.
But while Delgado might not have seized nearly as many headlines during his career as some of the other candidates on this year’s Contemporary Baseball Era Player Ballot, his body of work is certainly worthy of reconsideration.
Although he came up through the minors as a catcher, Delgado almost exclusively played first base in the big leagues, which limited his defensive value during his career, suppressing his career WAR (44.4) to a total rarely commensurate with Cooperstown entry. But from a purely offensive standpoint, Delgado’s case is compelling. While his 2003 campaign featuring a league-leading 145 RBI marked his highest MVP finish, Delgado’s 2000 season stands out as his peak with the bat. He started all 162 games for Toronto and hit an astonishing .344/.470/.664, becoming just the third player in MLB history with 50 doubles, 40 homers and 100 walks in a single season, along with Todd Helton that same season and Lou Gehrig in 1927.
That tremendous season marked his most complete offensive output, but let’s be real: Delgado was most known for the dingers. He had 11 30-homer seasons, including 10 in a row from 1997 to 2006. He recorded the ultra-rare four-homer game on Sept. 25, 2003. Quite simply, the most straightforward argument for Delgado’s Hall inclusion can be found by glancing at the all-time home run leaderboard. With 473 career homers, Delgado ranks 34th all time. Of the 33 sluggers ahead of him, only nine aren’t already in Cooperstown: seven due to connections to performance-enhancing drugs (Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield) and two who will be inducted on the first ballot in the next few years (Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera). By that measure, Delgado is far closer to Hall-worthy than his showing on the writers ballot would indicate — and perhaps this year’s committee will recognize as much. — Shusterman
Fernando Valenzuela
There are, essentially, two arguments for voting a player into the Hall of Fame. The first and most common category is enshrining a player for an overwhelming level of statistical production. By such merit, Fernando Valenzuela’s career numbers fall notably short. After a historically amazing start in his early 20s, the Mexican hurler was definitively below average for the last decade of his career.
But there is also a rationale for celebrating individuals whose careers and accomplishments go beyond on-field output. Valenzuela most certainly checks that box.
As a 20-year-old rookie in 1981, Valenzuela took the sport and the city of Los Angeles by storm, winning the Cy Young Award with a season for the ages. His Dodgers finished the year as World Series champions with a new, passionate and lasting contingent of Mexican-American Angelenos forever entrenched as die-hard fans. That legacy endures today, as the Dodgers remain a vital and vibrant symbol for many Latino communities in Southern California. Fernandomania, in some ways, never ended.
But Valenzuela was more than just an icon; he was also a badass pitcher. His heater rarely if ever creeped above 92 mph, but Valenzuela’s wide array of off-speed pitches and pin-point command made him one of the most imposing arms of his era. From 1981 to 1986, Valenzuela appeared in six consecutive All-Star Games and finished top-five in the Cy Young four times. Injuries and inconsistencies in his late 20s derailed the fairy tale, but “El Toro” was still capable of magic in his later years, most notably with a no-hitter in 1990.
This is the first time since his death in October 2024 that the pugnacious southpaw has appeared on the Eras Ballot. His is a name that belongs among the cultural giants of this great game, a figure whose contributions deserve to be immortalized in Cooperstown. — Mintz
Dale Murphy
Dale Murphy is one of the most intriguing names on this year’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot. One of the sport’s premier players of the 1980s, Murphy has a strong case as one of the top-10 players in baseball that decade. The outfielder was the centerpiece of the Atlanta Braves’ lineup and performed at a high level for a long time, finishing his 18-year career with 2,111 hits, 350 doubles, 398 home runs and 161 stolen bases.
During his prime, the Braves’ legend was absolutely dominant. He is one of just 30 players in MLB history who won multiple MVP awards. From 1980 to ‘88, only Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt hit more home runs than Murphy. And Murphy was the only player in that span to record at least 200 doubles, 30 triples, 250 home runs, 100 stolen bases and 700 walks. Plus, he was also one of the best defensive center fielders during his peak years in Atlanta, winning the NL Gold Glove Award for center fielders in five consecutive seasons.
The case against Murphy is that the drop-off in performance after his age-32 season was significant, but if you look at the 10 years when he was one of MLB’s best players at a premium position, the case for him to be elected to the Hall of Fame is just as strong. Murphy was dominant in his era, in the same conversation as several of his contemporaries who are already in the Hall of Fame. This could be the year he joins them. — Dorsey