Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela is one of eight players on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot for possible selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for the class of 2026.
It’s the first time on a veterans committee-type ballot for Valenzuela, who received 6.2 percent of the vote on Baseball Writers Association of America ballots in 2003, and 3.8 percent in 2004.
The Contemporary Baseball Era is defined by the Hall of Fame as candidates whose primary contribution to baseball came
1980 and after. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield are the other names on the ballot, with five of those seven having won MVP awards.
Valenzuela took baseball by storm, winning the National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, leading the Dodgers to the World Series. Over his first seven full seasons, Valenzuela led the majors in strikeouts and batters faced and led the NL in innings and starts, finishing one out shy of Jack Morris for the major league lead in innings.
Valenzuela averaged 255 innings, 209 strikeouts, and 16 wins over those first seven seasons, and made six All-Star teams in his career, including a record-tying five consecutive strikeouts in the 1986 midsummer classic. He pitched a no-hitter in 1990. Valenzuela’s career numbers — 173 wins, 37.3 Wins Above Replacement over 17 seasons — are less than the average Hall of Fame starting pitcher, but his impact reached far beyond the field, bringing Mexican and Latino fans to baseball in droves.
The Dodgers retired Valenzuela’s uniform number 34 in 2023, just the second player to have their number retired by the franchise without first making the Hall of Fame. The left-hander died on October 22, 2024.
Players must receive 12 of 16 votes from the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for induction to Cooperstown, with the committee meetng and voting at the winter meetings in Orlando. The results will be announced on December 7 at 4:30 p.m. PT on MLB Network.
