Baseball Hall of Fame reveal: The candidates, the rules, and everything you need to know

On Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2024 inductees, and there are several former Phillies on the ballot, including first-timer Chase Utley.

The Inquirer’s Hall of Fame voters — columnist Marcus Hayes and Phillies beat writer Scott Lauber — revealed their ballots and explained the reasoning behind their decisions. Soon, we’ll find out if their votes helped a player earn enshrinement in Cooperstown.

The Hall of Fame class will be announced at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The Baseball Hall of Fame announcement will be telecast live on MLB Network, with coverage of the event starting at 4 p.m.

» READ MORE: The 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame class: See how our writers voted and make your own picks

There are 26 players on the ballot. Of the players on the 2024 ballot, Todd Helton came closest to induction last year with 72.2% of the vote, just shy of the 75% required. A player can remain on the ballot for as many as 10 years, so long as he continues to receive at least 5% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Former Phillies Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, and Billy Wagner are also on the ballot, along with Carlos Beltrán, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Francisco Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, and Omar Vizquel.

» READ MORE: Chase Utley’s baserunning made him ‘The Man.’ Could it also make him a Hall of Famer?

Aside from Utley, the other new additions to the ballot are José Bautista, Adrián Beltré, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes, James Shields, and David Wright.

Utley is a Phillies legend who peaked as one of the best second basemen in the league, but he never reached 2,000 hits and didn’t have as long of a prime as some other Hall of Fame candidates. Both Inquirer writers voted for his induction in his first year of eligibility.

According to Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker, Utley has earned 40.5% of publicly available votes so far. That’s not enough to make it on the first ballot, but will certainly keep him on the ballot next year.

» READ MORE: Enjoying life in London, Chase Utley is proud of his career — whether he’s voted into the Hall of Fame or not

Rollins is the Phillies’ all-time hits leader and won National League MVP in 2007. He’s one of the greatest players in Phillies history. But he earned just 12.9% of the vote in 2023, and has been included on 14.9% of publicly available ballots according to Thibodaux’s tracker. However, one of the two Inquirer voters did include Rollins on his ballot.

He’s likely to remain on the ballot next year, but he’s still a long shot to get in based on the numbers so far.

» READ MORE: Sielski: Utley and Rollins deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They’re not the only ones.

Candidates need 75% of the vote to get in, and about 50% of votes are currently public.

According to Thibodaux’s tracker, Beltré is on 99% of publicly available ballots in his first year, making him a strong candidate for first-ballot induction. Mauer is on 83.1% in his first year of eligibility, Helton is on 82.6% of ballots, and Wagner is on 78.5%, meaning they’ll all get in if the other half of the votes is similar to the already-public ballots.

In his final year of eligibility, Sheffield is on 74.9% of publicly available ballots. Jones is on 70.8%, and Beltrán is on 66.7% of ballots. No other candidate is on more than 50% of available ballots.

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The Hall of Fame class will be inducted on July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The inductees will be joined at the ceremony by Jim Leyland, who was selected on Dec. 3 by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, Joe Castiglione, who earned the Ford C. Frick Award, and Gerry Fraley, who earned the BBWAA Career Excellence Award.