Three former Braves players are on the ballot with at least one knocking on the door to Cooperstown.
Three former Atlanta Braves players are on the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. With more than one quarter of the vote total tallied in the outstanding HOF Tracker, founded by Ryan Thibodaux, how are these retire Braves players doing in the vote, thus far?
As of the morning of January 5, 2025, Billy Wagner has garnered more than 85-percent of the vote. This is Wagner’s 10th and final time appearing on the ballot. The long-time closer spent the last season of his playing career with the Braves in 2010. He ended with 422 career saves with 1,196 strikeouts in only 903 innings pitched. Wagner, a seven-time All-Star, just missed election last season with 73.8-percent of the vote; a 75-percent total is required for election.
Former Braves outfielder Andruw Jones is on the ballot for the eighth time. One of the greatest defensive players of all-time saw his career decline significantly after turning 30 years old, but still ended his career with 434 home runs in MLB. After his last season in the majors in 2012, Jones spent two seasons playing in Japan where he hit 50 total home runs. Jones saw his vote total increase to 61.6-percent last year. His current vote totally is north of 72-percent of the vote, but given how voting trends have gone of the years, it is doubtful he will be elected this season, but with two more cycles to go, he is making steady progress toward election. The five-time All-Star won 10 Gold Gloves from 1998 through 2007 while with Atlanta.
Brian McCann is making his HOF ballot debut with this election cycle, and the former long-time catcher is currently just short of the 5-percent needed to stay on the ballot for 2026. McCann was a seven-time All-Star, with all of those appearances with Atlanta between 2006 and 2013. McCann retired after the 2019 season just 18 home runs short of 300 for his career. McCann had a fine career – and is one of the best catcher in Braves franchise history – but won’t be voted in by the writers this season. The big question for McCann will be if he is able to secure the 15 additional votes he needs to stay on the ballot next year.
Also on the ballot is pitcher Felix Hernandez, who signed with the Braves prior to the 2020 season looking to make Atlanta’s rotation after 15 years with the Seattle Mariners. Hernandez opted-out after the COVID-19-shortened season resumed in 2020. He won a Cy Young and finished second twice in the vote while with the Mariners. He was a six-time All-Star. He has already received enough votes to return to the 2026 ballot. He had picked-up slightly more than 26-percent of the vote, so far. His HOF journey will be interesting watch as the years go by evaluations of starting pitchers evolve. He was one of the best pitches in the American League for almost a decade but pitched his last MLB game when he was 33 years-old in 2019. He won’t turn 39 until April 2025.
To keep up with the voting total, check-out the HOF tracker here.
