San Diego Padres: HOF Voting Ongoing, Hoffman on the Brink

The San Diego Padres may just get their tenth Hall of Fame inductee this year. As voting continues, Trevor Hoffman is right on the brink of being selected.

The San Diego Padres currently have nine players inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. By the end of the calendar year, the organization may very well be celebrating a tenth.

Trevor Hoffman is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the second consecutive year. Voting has commenced, as the ballot was released yesterday. Voting ends on December 31st, and the class of 2017 will be announced on January 18th.

Players need 75% of the overall vote to be inducted, and can be on the ballot for ten years. However, if a player receives less than 5% of the vote in a given year, they are removed from the ballot the next.

Hoffman received 67.3% of the vote in 2016, so his spot on the ballot next year if he doesn’t get in this year is not in jeopardy. In fact, historically, those approaching 70% of the vote one year most often get in the next. This bodes well for the Padre legend, as it seems now that it is a matter of when and not if he is inducted.

Currently, early results are pouring in.

More detailed reports of the individual ballots can be found here.

At 77%, Hoffman has just enough votes to be inducted, if the voting were to end now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and San Diego fans will have to sweat it out. But it looks as if the 49-year-old is a lock to eventually get in, even if he is not part of 2017’s class.

The specific criteria electors follow is detailed on the Hall of Fame’s official website.

"Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."

Based on these qualifications, most agree that Hoffman should eventually be inducted.

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A trip to Cooperstown would put the icing on the cake of an absolutely unforgettable career Hoffman had. Spending 16 seasons with the club, the closer led the National League in saves twice, and was selected to six All-Star teams. Most memorably for fans though, he was a Padre during some of the most exciting seasons in franchise history, such as 1998 and 2006. Now, one more memorable chapter is about to be written.