Monday morning, the Baseball Writers Association of America released the official 2017 Hall of Fame ballot. The 34-player ballot includes 15 holdovers from last year and 19 newcomers.
Here are the 15 holdovers on this year's ballot, as well as their voting results from a year ago. The players are listed alphabetically.
| 2016 voting percentage | Years on ballot | |
| Jeff Bagwell | 71.6% | 6 |
| Barry Bonds | 44.3% | 4 |
| Roger Clemens | 45.2% | 4 |
| Trevor Hoffman | 68.3% | 1 |
| Jeff Kent | 16.6% | 3 |
| Edgar Martinez | 43.4% | 7 |
| Fred McGriff | 20.9% | 9 |
| Mike Mussina | 43.0% | 3 |
| Tim Raines | 69.8% | 9 |
| Curt Schilling | 52.3% | 4 |
| Gary Sheffield | 11.6% | 2 |
| Lee Smith | 34.1% | 14 |
| Sammy Sosa | 7.0% | 4 |
| Billy Wagner | 10.5% | 1 |
| Larry Walker | 15.5% | 6 |
McGriff, Raines and Smith are all on the ballot for the final time. Players used to remain on the ballot for a maximum of 15 years, though that was reduced to 10 not too long ago. Smith was grandfathered in, which is why he is on the ballot for the 15th time while McGriff and Raines are both on for the 10th time.
As a reminder, a player needs to receive 75 percent of the vote for induction into the Hall of Fame and at least 5 percent of the vote to stay on the ballot another year. Historically, when a player gets over 70 percent of the vote but falls short of induction, he gets in the following year. That bodes well for Bagwell.
To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a player must have played at least 10 years in MLB and played their final game at least five years ago. Here are the 19 newcomers to the Hall of Fame ballot, listed alphabetically.
Casey Blake
Pat Burrell
Orlando Cabrera
Mike Cameron
J.D. Drew
Carlos Guillen
Vladimir Guerrero
Derek Lee
Melvin Mora
Magglio Ordonez
Jorge Posada
Manny Ramirez
Edgar Renteria
Arthur Rhodes
Ivan Rodriguez
Freddy Sanchez
Matt Stairs
Jason Varitek
Tim Wakefield
Manny, Vlad and Rodriguez are the most notable newcomers to the ballot. Ramirez has first-ballot Hall of Fame credentials but is unlikely to ever be voted into Cooperstown after being suspended not once, but twice for performance-enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez is simply one of the greatest catchers in baseball history -- his 2,749 hits as a catcher are by far the most ever -- though it remains to be seen whether he gets swept up in PED suspicion like Bagwell and other players from his era. The same is true of Guerrero, who was one of the most exciting players of his generation.
Other newcomers like Ordonez and Posada figure to generate plenty of Hall of Fame debate. Blake, Cabrera, Mora, Rhodes and Stairs are among the players likely to be one-and-done, meaning they won't receive the necessary 5 percent of the vote to remain on the ballot another year.
Hall of Fame voters must submit their ballots by Dec. 31. The 2017 Hall of Fame class will be announced during a live MLB Network broadcast on Wednesday, Jan. 18.
