| New Inductees: | 2 |
| Bbwaa: | 1 |
| Cbec: | 1 |
| Inductees: | 342 |
| Date: | July 23, 2023 |
| Before: | 2022 |
| After: | 2024 |
Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2023 were conducted according to the rules most recently amended in 2022. As in the past, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from a ballot of recently retired players, with the results announced on January 24.[1] Scott Rolen, in his sixth year of eligibility, was the only player elected from the BBWAA ballot. Rolen had received 10.2% of the vote in his first year on the ballot in 2018, the lowest first-year percentage ever for a candidate eventually voted in by the BBWAA.[2]
A meeting of the players' Contemporary Baseball Era committee—one of a group of three rotating bodies generally referred to as the Veterans Committee and whose structure was amended in April 2022—was held in December 2022 to consider players from the era beginning in 1980 who no longer appear on the BBWAA ballot. Fred McGriff was the only player elected from the Veterans Committee ballot.
The list of players appearing on the BBWAA ballot was released on November 21, 2022; the results were announced on January 24, 2023. There were 14 players carried over from the 2022 ballot,[3] [4] who garnered at least 5% of the vote and were still eligible for election, as well as 14 players whose last major league appearance was in 2017 and were chosen by a screening committee.[5] This was the final ballot for Jeff Kent.[6] A total of 389 ballots were cast, with 292 votes needed to reach the 75% threshold for election. A total of 2281 votes were cast for individual players, an average of 5.86 votes per ballot.
| Votes | Percent | Change | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 297 | 76.3% | 13.1% | |||
| 281 | 72.2% | 20.2% | |||
| 265 | 68.1% | 17.1% | |||
| 226 | 58.1% | 16.7% | |||
| 214 | 55.0% | 14.4% | |||
| 181 | 46.5% | – | |||
| 181 | 46.5% | 13.8% | |||
| 139 | 35.7% | 1.4% | |||
| 129 | 33.2% | 4.3% | |||
| 76 | 19.5% | 4.4% | |||
| 66 | 17.0% | 3.3% | |||
| 60 | 15.4% | 6.8% | |||
| 50 | 12.9% | 3.5% | |||
| 42 | 10.8% | 5.0% | |||
| 42 | 10.8% | – | |||
| 27 | 6.9% | 1.6% | |||
| 1 | 0.3% | – | |||
| 1 | 0.3% | – | |||
| 1 | 0.3% | – | |||
| 1 | 0.3% | – | |||
| 1 | 0.3% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – | |||
| 0 | 0.0% | – |
Players who met first-year eligibility requirements but were not selected by the screening committee for inclusion on the ballot were: Mike Avilés, Erick Aybar, Joaquín Benoit, Andrés Blanco, Joe Blanton, Craig Breslow, Jonathan Broxton, Alejandro De Aza, Stephen Drew, Yunel Escobar, Scott Feldman, Matt Garza, Jason Grilli, Jeremy Guthrie, Franklin Gutiérrez, Ryan Hanigan, Aaron Hill, J. P. Howell, Ubaldo Jiménez, Kyle Kendrick, Adam Lind, Dustin McGowan, Michael Morse, Brandon Moss, Edward Mujica, Ricky Nolasco, Eric O'Flaherty, Mike Pelfrey, Glen Perkins, Chad Qualls, Ryan Raburn, Carlos Ruiz, Seth Smith, Geovany Soto, Rickie Weeks and Chris Young.[7]
The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee met on December 4 at baseball's winter meetings in San Diego to consider candidates from the era beginning in 1980, players who have been retired at least fifteen years and played most of their careers after 1980. The 16-member committee considered a ballot including eight former players, announced on November 7.[8] Players needed 75% or more of the committee vote in order to be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.
Fred McGriff was the only player to be inducted, garnering unanimous support from the 16-member committee.[9] [10]
| Candidate | Votes | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 100% | ||
| 8 | 50% | ||
| 7 | 43.75% | ||
| 6 | 37.5% | ||
| <4 | |||
| <4 | |||
| <4 | |||
| <4 |
The committee consisted of the following individuals:[11]
The 2023 Ford C. Frick Award will be bestowed as part of the Awards Presentation.
In April 2022, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced changes to the Ford C. Frick Award selection process. The size of the ballot was increased from eight to ten nominees, while also requiring that at least one candidate be a foreign-language broadcaster. The election cycle was also revised, effective with the 2023 balloting: four consecutive elections will have a composite ballot of local and national broadcasters, followed by one election for broadcasters whose careers ended prior to 1994.[12] The announced finalists were:
On December 7, 2022, the Hall of Fame announced that Pat Hughes won the Frick Award.[13]
The 2023 BBWAA Career Excellence Award will also be bestowed as part of the Awards Presentation, honoring a baseball writer "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing". On December 6, 2022, the Hall of Fame announced that retired sportswriter John Lowe won the award.[14] Lowe, who wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Detroit Free Press, invented the quality start statistic in 1985.[15]