The names on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for 2026 were released on Monday afternoon, and there are several with previous ties to the Cincinnati Reds. Chief among them are outfielder Shin-Soo Choo
and 3B/DH Edwin Encarnacion and, presumably, the parrot on his shoulder.
Ryan Thibodaux relayed the latest ballot on Bluesky, with the two names above joining the likes of Ryan Braun, Gio Gonzalez, Alex Gordon, Cole Hamels, former Reds outfielder Matt Kemp, Howie Kendrick, former Reds draft pick Nick Markakis, Daniel Murphy, Hunter Pence, and Rick Porcello as the there’s no way those guys have actually been retired for five years already corner of the ballot.
It will also alarm you to see that Manny Ramirez is already on his final year of ballot eligiblity, a travesty for the guy who was pretty clearly the best combination of a) right-handed hitter and b) hilarious that this sport has perhaps ever seen. He’s also got the obvious connection with current Reds manager Terry Francona from their time together with the Boston Red Sox, with the same being true of Dustin Pedroia.
Choo, of course, was a linchpin on the 2013 Cincinnati Reds club that famously nosedived from ‘could be something special’ to ‘out of the playoffs after one game’ at the tail end of the Dusty Baker Era in town. He was an absolute on-base machine both as a Red and in every other uniform he wore, and while he won’t get inducted into the HoF he remains one of the more fondly remembered Reds of his generation.
E5, on the other hand, likely holds a more complicated spot in Cincinnati lore. His bat played early on in his Reds tenure, but the team’s insistence that he stick at the hot corner through his tenure despite his obvious flaws defensively tanked his value. He was dealt to Toronto as a key piece of the deal that brought Scott Rolen to town, and Scott Rolen’s Reds became the best run of form of the last three decades. Edwin, to his credit, took off when moved out of Cincinnati and off the hot corner, eventually retiring after having bashed 424 career dingers.
It’s a ballot devoid of an obvious First-Ballot Hall of Famer™ given the litany of names associated with peformance-enhancing substances and other scandals, and we’re fresh off a trio having been elected in 2025 (Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner). That said, Carlos Beltrán received votes on 70.3% of the ballot last time around and likely stands to see enough of an uptick for induction, while Andruw Jones (66.2%) looks like he may well get over the hump, too. As for the group of first-timers, well, I don’t belive there’s a HoFer among them, though how well-received Cole Hamels is will go a long way to determining how HoF cases are viewed for modern-era starting pitchers in the age where bullpen use began to proliferate.
