Red Sox Legend Falls Off MLB Hall Of Fame Ballot, Comes Up Short In Final Year
The Baseball Hall of Fame is widely considered the hardest Hall of Fame to gain entry to.
Players need to earn 75% of all votes on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. They have just ten years to be voted in after they become eligible. If they fail to do so, their name is removed from the ballot.
Boston Red Sox legend Manny Ramirez was down to his final year of eligibility in the 2026 cycle. Of the 425 ballots submitted, Ramirez needed to appear on 319 to be elected.
He received 165 votes, or 38.8%, in his tenth and final year.
Only two players, Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, were voted in this year.
Ramirez and other players eliminated from the BBWAA ballots can gain entry in only one other way: through the Era Committee ballot.
The Era Committee is primarily comprised of former players, focusing on Major League Baseball legends who played after 1980.
As of right now, the Era Committee is traditionally even harsher on players who faced punishment for using performance-enhancing drugs — as Ramirez did — than the BBWAA is.
However, should something in the baseball discourse change in the coming years, players like Ramirez and Barry Bonds, who have cut-and-dry Hall of Fame cases, may one day be granted entry.
Ramirez has the 15th most home runs in MLB history. Only eight of the 14 batters who have more than him have been voted into the Hall of Fame.
One other notable exclusion includes New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.
Rodriguez is fifth in all-time home runs and received five more votes than Ramirez did on the 2026 ballot.
He, too, is likely to suffer the Red Sox outfielders’ fate after multiple alleged scandals with performance-enhancing drugs in his career.