Connolly’s 2026 Hall of Fame ballot: Carlos Beltrán, Cole Hamels, Félix Hernández, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Nick Markakis, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley.
I’ve been voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame for nearly 20 years.
This is my oddest ballot to date. Every candidate has at least one major negative. The two most qualified players are both two-time violators of the sport’s drug prevention program.
One PED mistake/suspension, I’ll still consider a player for the Hall. Two, and I’m done. I can’t properly assess anything in a career at that point. Those are my rules, ARod and Manny.
Additionally, I shifted my thoughts about starting pitchers for this ballot. The game has changed, and I need to evaluate pitchers a little differently now. Longevity matters but counting statistics – such as wins – take a backseat to performance. Periods of dominance, especially compared to peers, catch my attention more than they did when I began evaluating for the Hall.
I also put a lot of emphasis on defensive abilities – with offensive numbers skewed upward over the last three decades – and that leads me to being a “big Hall guy.” I typically err on the side of voting for borderline players if their defense was exceptional.
But the real difference in my ballot this year is, for the first time, I checked off a player that I don’t think has the overall numbers to be in the Hall. I simply wanted to recognize his career one last time. That player is former Orioles and Atlanta Braves rightfielder Nick Markakis.
Markakis is one of the most underrated and underappreciated in the history of the game. He was a talented player who was a tremendous teammate, a consummate professional and, although typically reserved and reticent, was one of baseball’s most vocal, anti-steroid voices at a time when the sport was continually grappling with that issue.
I covered Markakis daily through the first 60 percent of his career. No one in the Orioles’ clubhouse during that time was more respected. No one in that clubhouse played harder or more often than Markakis.
His buddy, centerfielder Adam Jones, came close. Jones said multiple times that when he signed his large contract extension in 2012, he felt he needed to post every day to follow the example set by Markakis when he inked his extension in 2009.
In 12 seasons from 2007 until 2018, Markakis played 155 or more games 11 times. The only year he didn’t was 2012, when his season was cut short by a CC Sabathia fastball that broke Markakis’ thumb.
He didn’t just show up to games. He batted .285 or better and/or posted a .350 OBP or higher in 11 seasons. He hit double-digit homers 11 times, 30 or more doubles nine times and amassed 2,388 hits.
Markakis also was the best rightfielder in Camden Yards history, handling caroms off the out-of-town scoreboard like nobody before or since. By his third year or so, the word was out: Don’t try to turn a single into a double on a ball off the right-field wall with Markakis out there.
He was ultimately rewarded with three Gold Gloves, but he should have had more. In his first five seasons, there was no specific award for right field, so centerfielders dominated the outfielder Gold Gloves.
Markakis made only one All-Star Game, in his 13th season at age 34. He should have reached more of those, too, but the Orioles typically received one spot in most of his seasons due to their poor win-loss record.
In 2014, Markakis helped lead the team to its first American League East division title in 17 years. He was a free agent at the end of that season and had basically agreed to a four-year deal when the Orioles got cold feet because Markakis needed neck surgery.
They were afraid his incredible durability would be compromised, so they pulled the offer. The Braves swooped in with a four-year deal, and Markakis played all but 10 total games for Atlanta during those four seasons. Underappreciated and underrated.
If there was a fault in Markakis’ game it’s that he didn’t hit enough homers for a corner outfielder – 189 in his career; only twice did he homer 20 times or more in a season. That hurt his status in a sport that championed the long ball, even if it was achieved artificially.
That irked Markakis. He constantly played the game the right way, and that meant avoiding performance-enhancing drugs. Yet, because his power numbers were compared to some players who had been suspected of – or suspended for – PEDs, his natural power would always be considered a detriment in assessing his career.
He kept quiet about that until 2013, when the Biogenesis scandal emerged. The always media-cautious Markakis spoke up, shocking teammates, players and officials. He said the first suspension for PED use should be five years; the second, an automatic expulsion. He supported a lifetime ban for a first, failed test but knew many would consider that too harsh.
The bottom line, Markakis said, was that PED users cheated the game and put those who followed the rules at a competitive disadvantage. His words carried weight and he was lauded throughout the league. When he talked, people listened.
Several months later, in February 2014, the Orioles signed outfielder Nelson Cruz, one of those players suspended in the Biogenesis scandal who also beat out Markakis for an All-Star bid in 2013. How did Markakis react?
He, along with some other veteran Orioles, attended Cruz’s press conference. Afterward, Markakis said he stood by his words about PEDs, but he acknowledged that Cruz had served his MLB-mandated suspension, assumed he’d be clean going forward and would welcome Cruz as a teammate. The two worked well together that playoff season; their free-agent departures at the end of 2014 hastened the closing of the Orioles’ competitive window.
Markakis carried that integrity throughout his career, and subsequently, he maintained the respect of those who played with him, against him and covered him.
Character is part of the listed requirements in Hall of Fame balloting and voters often use that provision to diminish a player’s candidacy. I’m going with the opposite this year.
I want Markakis to receive at least one Hall of Fame vote in recognition of how he played the game and how he handled himself during a strong, 15-season career. That sentiment is not unprecedented.
Each year, players on the ballot whose careers aren’t quite Hall of Fame worthy – Hall of Very Good, maybe – receive a couple votes. Oftentimes, that is met with disdain from fans.
I have never done it before. I doubt I will ever do it again.
I came close twice: B.J. Surhoff in 2011 and Jones last year. They were also guys with good numbers who played the game right and made their teammates better, and I watched that up close with each. Ultimately, I decided not to take a stand with either. Surhoff received two votes from the writers and Jones, three.
There is a distinction between appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot and getting at least one vote. Former Oriole pitcher and team executive, the late Mike Flanagan, told me that years ago. He said there’s just a little extra validation that at least one writer took note of your career.
Flanagan, the forever wiseacre, also told me he took pride that in his one year on the ballot, in 1998, he received two votes and his longtime friend and batterymate, Rick Dempsey, got one. He liked to rib Dempsey that he doubled his catcher’s Hall vote total.
I’m not sure if I will be the lone vote for Markakis, although I’m confident he won’t get the 5 percent needed to stay on the 2027 ballot.
And that’s OK. Numbers-wise, I know Markakis doesn’t meet the Hall standards.
But I wanted to officially appreciate his underrated, underappreciated career one final time.
Dan Connolly covered the Baltimore Orioles for 24 seasons for various media entities, including the Baltimore Sun and BaltimoreBaseball.com.
