Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, joining former Phillies Curt Schilling, Billy Wagner, Scott Rolen, Bobby Abreu, and Jonathan Papelbon.

Schilling is in his 10th and final year, and famously said he didn’t want to be on the ballot this year. Abreu is in year three, Rolen in year five, and Wagner in year seven. They each received at least 5% of the vote in 2020 to remain eligible.

Papelbon is a newcomer along with Howard, J Roll, and the following others:

  • Carl Crawford
  • Prince Fielder
  • Tim Lincecum
  • Justin Morneau
  • Joe Nathan
  • David Ortiz
  • Jonathan Papelbon
  • Jake Peavy
  • A.J. Pierzynski
  • Alex Rodríguez
  • Mark Teixeira

A Rod and Big Papi are shoe-in first ballot Hall of Famers, unless we get into a steroid thing. It’ll be interesting to see if the voters put Schilling in or not, and I wonder if anything changes now that the Trump stuff has died down. There’s less political rancor on social media these days, so it might be to his benefit. Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds are also in their final years of eligibility, believe it or not. It’s going to be super-fascinating to see how this turns out. A lot of controversial characters on this list.

As for Howard and J Roll, I don’t know. My gut tells me Ryan is not getting in, but J Roll has a chance in a few years.

Jimmy’s credentials: 1 World Series, 3X All Star, NL MVP, 4x Gold Glove winner, Silver Slugger 1x, Roberto Clemente Award 1x

Howard: 1 World Series, 3X All Star, NL MVP, Rookie of the Year, NLCS MVP, 1x Silver Slugger, 1x Hank Aaron Award, 2x home run leader, 3x RBI leader

I’ll leave you with their career numbers: