The Climb to 75 Percent

What this tracks: the final result of every writers' ballot since 1966 and each candidate's climb from year to year. It is not a live count of the ballots voters publish before the 2027 announcement.

The Climb to 75%

Every candidate on the 2027 ballot who was on last year's ballot is drawn here year by year, with the two players the writers elected last January, Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, as dashed green lines for comparison. Pick a name to pick out his line.

Jones is the best reason not to read too much into a low start. He started at 7.3% in 2018, was still under 20% in his third year, and got in with 78.4% in his ninth. Beltrán went 46.5%, 57.1%, 70.3% and then 84.2%. Of this year's holdovers, Chase Utley is closest at 59.1%. His 19.3-point gain last January was bigger than any single-year gain Beltrán made on his way in.

The 2027 Ballot at a Glance

As of November 9, 2026. The official 2027 ballot is released on November 16, 2026. Voting closes at the end of December, the results are announced on January 19, 2027, and the class is inducted in Cooperstown on July 25, 2027.

Thirteen players return from last year. Each bar is his share last January; the red mark is 75%. Omar Vizquel is in his 10th and final year. Andy Pettitte is in his 9th.

The new names come from players whose last season was 2021. Buster Posey leads the group. These are the expected first-timers; the writers' screening committee decides who makes the printed ballot.

A separate vote comes first. The Contemporary Era committee, which looks at managers, executives and umpires, meets on December 6, 2026. Its ballot has managers Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon and Lou Piniella and executives Sandy Alderson, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner and Bill White. A candidate needs 12 of the 16 votes.

The Path to 75% Checker

Pick a 2027 candidate, or type in any share and year on the ballot. The checker finds every past candidate who stood within five points of that share at the same stage, and shows how many of them the writers went on to elect, and which of the others a committee elected later. For this year's candidates it uses their last completed ballot: for Chase Utley that is 59.1% in his 3rd year, 2026.

A note on how to read it: stages are grouped as year 1, years 2 and 3, years 4 to 6, years 7 to 9 and year 10 or later, because there are only so many candidates at any one share in any one year. Before 2015 players could stay on the ballot for 15 years, so some of the older names had more time than today's candidates get.

The 50% Rule

The old saying is that anyone who reaches 50% with the writers ends up in the Hall of Fame. It is very nearly true. Since 1966, 117 players have reached 50% on a writers' ballot. Two are still on it. Of the other 115, the writers elected 104 and a committee elected 7 more, which makes 111 of 115.

The four exceptions are Curt Schilling, who peaked at 71.1%, the highest share of any player never elected, and Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield. All four used up their years with the writers. Bonds, Clemens and Sheffield each got fewer than five of the 16 votes from the Contemporary Era committee in December 2025, which elected Jeff Kent instead.

The seven committee picks are Enos Slaughter, Jim Bunning, Nellie Fox, Orlando Cepeda, Jack Morris, Lee Smith and Gil Hodges. Until Schilling, Bonds, Clemens and Sheffield, every 50% player the writers passed over was later elected by a committee.

The stronger version of the rule is about timing. Every candidate who reached somewhere between 60% and just under 75% within his first six years on the ballot was later elected by the writers: 34 of 34. (Players who went straight past 75% are not counted here; they were elected on the spot.)

The Closest Calls

The line is 75%, rounded up to the next whole vote. These are the nearest misses since 1966.

The other side of the line has its own stories. Fergie Jenkins in 1991 and Ralph Kiner in 1975 both made it with a single vote to spare, and Kiner did it in his final year.

The Biggest One-Year Jumps

Support usually builds slowly, but not always. These are the ten biggest gains from one ballot to the next since 1966. Félix Hernández's jump from 20.6% to 46.1% last January ties Luis Aparicio's for the biggest of all, and Andy Pettitte added 20.6 points in the same vote.

Some climbs ran out of road. Seven players since 1966 were elected by the writers in their final year:

Billy Wagner is the most recent. He missed by five votes in 2024 and got 82.5% in 2025, his last chance.

First Ballot or Long Wait

Of the 104 players the writers have elected since 1966, 55 got in on the first ballot. Each square below is one of the 104, placed by the year on the ballot in which he was elected. Tap one for the name.

The top of the first-ballot list is Mariano Rivera, the only unanimous pick at 100% in 2019, followed by Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki, who each finished one vote short. At the other end, 26 players needed six years or more. Andruw Jones, who needed nine, put it simply on the day: "It was very close for me to be off the ballot."

Every Candidate Who Reached 50%

All 117 players who reached 50% on a writers' ballot since 1966. Click a column heading to sort. For players who were already on the ballot before 1966, years on the ballot count their earlier years too.