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Every winter, two different Baseball Hall of Fame votes take place. The one that garners the most discussion is the BBWAA component of the ballot, which is generally the one that most people think about when discussing "the Hall of Fame ballot." This year's ballot, released several weeks ago, includes Carlos Beltrán, Alex Rodriguez, Chase Utley and newcomers like Cole Hamels and Ryan Braun. 

The other route into the Hall of Fame is via an Era Committee, formerly the Veteran's Committee. This is how former managers, executives, pioneers, umpires, etc. can be elected, but also former players who didn't make it in via the BBWAA ballot. Some of the recent players to make it via the Era committee are Fred McGriff, Alan Trammell, Lee Smith, Dick Allen and Minnie Miñoso. 

The committee vote takes place at the Winter Meetings each year and this time around it's the Contemporary Era Committee. There are eight former players who didn't make the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA vote and get another chance here: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.

Predicting the Contemporary Era Hall of Fame ballot voting for Barry Bonds, Fernando Valenzuela and more
Matt Snyder
Predicting the Contemporary Era Hall of Fame ballot voting for Barry Bonds, Fernando Valenzuela and more

A 16-person panel will meet at the Winter Meetings to discuss the eight candidates before placing their votes, individually. Any player who gets 12 of the 16 votes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

This time around there's a new rule: any player who does not get at least five votes will not be eligible to be on the ballot next time around (it's a three-year cycle, so the next Contemporary Era player ballot will be for the 2029 Hall of Fame class). Moving forward, any candidate who appears on the Era Committee ballot twice and fails to reach five votes either time, that person will not be eligible for future consideration for the Hall of Fame. 

Both Bonds and Clemens were on this ballot in December of 2022 and neither got a single vote. That doesn't, however, mean this is their final try, because the new rule implemented here is, again, moving forward. Past committee votes don't count toward the elimination. 

The 16-person panel consists of the following voters: 

  • Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, Robin Yount
  • Executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins, Terry Ryan 
  • Media/historians Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner, Jayson Stark

How to watch

Date: Sunday, Dec. 7 | Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV channel: MLB Network | Live stream: Fubo (try for free)

Prediction

The committees in recent years have shown no give when it comes to players with any whiff of a connection to PEDs, so Bonds, Clemens and Sheffield almost definitely won't get in. I'm sticking to my Fernando Valenzuela prediction and the committees in recent years have been somewhat generous with players in the same tier as Mattingly, Murphy, Delgado and Kent (think McGriff, Allen, Dave Parker, etc.), so I think we'll see multiple players get in. I'll go with Valenzuela, Mattingly and Murphy making it to Cooperstown next summer.