A quartet of Word Series-winning managers headline the eight Contemporary Era finalists for the 2027 Baseball Hall of Fame.
Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon and Lou Piniella all spent at least 19 years in a major-league dugout with a total of seven World Series rings among them. They are joined on the ballot by former executives Sandy Alderson and Brian Sabean, along with broadcasting pioneer and former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner, and eight-time All-Star and former National League president Bill White.
A 16-member panel selected by the Hall will consider those eight candidates who made their contributions to the game after 1980. The ones who receive at least 75% of the vote will be announced on Dec. 6 before the start of the Winter Meetings
in San Diego.
Here's a look at the eight Contemporary Era finalists:
Sandy Alderson, executive
After two years serving as general counsel, Alderson was named general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 1983. He was the architect of an A's team that went to three consecutive World Series from 1988-90. After leaving the club in 1997 (and being succeeded as GM by Billy Beane), Alderson became MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations from 1998-2005. He also served as CEO of the San Diego Padres and general manager of the New York Mets.
Dusty Baker, player/manager
Though Baker is perhaps best known as a beloved manager for five different major league teams, he also had a 19-year career as a player. An outfielder, Baker hit .278 with 242 home runs for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's, earning two All-Star nods, a Gold Glove and two Silver Sluggers. He went on to manage the Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros to a total of 2,143 wins (eighth-most all-time) and a .540 winning percentage. The only manager in history to take five different teams to the postseason, Baker finally won a World Series in 2022 with the Astros.
Bruce Bochy, player/manager
After nine years in the majors as a catcher, Bochy began his managerial career with the San Diego Padres in 1995, taking them to the World Series in his fourth season. He then moved to the San Francisco Giants in 2007 and guided them to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014 before retiring after the 2019 season. However, he came out of retirement in 2023 to manage the Texas Rangers and lead them to a World Series championship that season. Retiring again after the 2025 season, Bochy ranks sixth on the all-time wins list with 2,252 in 28 seasons.
Joe Maddon, manager
A three-time manager of the year with the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs, Maddon became the first skipper in 108 years to lead the Cubs to a World Series title when they accomplished the feat in 2016. He began his coaching career in the Angels organization, serving as interim manager in both 1996 and 1999. He got his first full-time managing job in 2006 with the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a franchise he turned into an AL pennant winner in his third season. After managing the Rays for nine years, he moved to the Cubs in 2015, making the playoffs in four of his five seasons. He left Chicago to return to Anaheim in 2020 for three more seasons, finishing with a career record of 1,382-1,216 (.532).
Lou Piniella, player/manager
A fiery competitor as both a player and coach, Piniella won two World Series rings as an outfielder for the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978. The 1969 AL Rookie of the Year with the Kansas City Royals, Piniella was a .291 career hitter over 18 seasons in the majors. Two years after he retired, he was hired to manage the Yankees, but was fired by owner George Steinbrenner in the middle of Year 3. Hired by the Cincinnati Reds in 1990, Piniella guided them to a World Series championship in his initial season. He went on to manage the Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Chicago Cubs − totaling 1,835 wins in 23 seasons.
Brian Sabean, executive
A former scouting director and player development director with the New York Yankees, Sabean was hired by the San Francisco Giants as general manager in 1997. He remained in that role for 29 seasons and became the architect of three World Series championship teams under Bochy from 2010-2014. Sabean was twice named Baseball America's Executive of the Year.
Ted Turner, executive
The founder of Turner Broadcasting and CNN, Turner was a lifelong baseball fan who paired his TV reach with his ownership of the Atlanta Braves to turn the franchise into "America's Team" in the 1980s. With unprecedented live coverage of every regular-season game, the Braves developed a national following as they built a National League dynasty in the early 1990s. Turner, who died earlier this year at the age of 87, finally got a World Series title in 1995 before selling the team the following year.
Bill White, player/broadcater/executive
An eight-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glover as a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York/San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, White joined the broadcast booth of the New York Yankees once his 13-year playing career came to an end. He teamed with Phil Rizzuto for 18 seasons before being named president of the National League in 1989. The first Black president of any major North American sports league, he served in that post until 1994. He received the Hall of Fame's Buck O'Neil Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2026.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bruce Bochy, Dusty Baker headline Baseball Hall's Contemporary Era ballot
