We are still less than 10 percent of the way through the voting, but as of now, former Minnesota Twins star Joe Mauer is trending towards election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
This is Mauer's first year on the ballot. He needs 75 percent of the vote in order to receive election into Cooperstown. Thus far, he has 80.0 percent of the vote. As of this posting, 7.8 percent of ballots are known.
Ballot trackers @NotMrTibbs and @ShutTheDore are tracking the information, which can be found in the post below.
Mauer played for the Twins from 2004-2018, getting the distinction of spending his entire career in one organization. The Minnesota native was a lifetime .306 hitter with 143 home runs. He was named an All-Star six times, won three Gold Gloves, three batting titles and an MVP award. He paired with Justin Morneau and Johan Santana to make one of the best trios in organizational history.
He also got to the playoffs four times with the Twins, appearing in postseasons in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2017. The Twins were knocked out by the Yankees in three of those four years, losing to Oakland in the other.
The backstop was already inducted into the team's Hall of Fame this past summer. Whether or not Mauer gets enough votes to make the Hall of Fame on the first ballot remains to be seen, but he should certainly garner enough attention to remain on the ballot next year.
In addition to Mauer, Adrian Beltre and Todd Helton are currently on track to be elected. Andruw Jones, Billy Wagner, Chase Utley and Gary Sheffield are all at 60 percent of the vote or greater.
The inductees will be named later on in January of 2024.
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