How Safe is Braves' Andruw Jones' Hall of Fame Candidacy?

The Atlanta Braves legend has a rock solid share of the public ballots, but much of the voting pool is still unknown

Here is how many votes have to go in the Braves' legend's favor | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

At this time, Andruw Jones appears to be in the driver’s seat to get into the Hall of Fame based on the known votes. However, there is still a long way to go. Only just over half the ballots are known, meaning we don’t know how far off the Atlanta Braves star actually is. 

Using the data that is known to the public, we can gauge how far off Jones actually is. Ryan Thibodaux is a notable ballot tracker, and he’s been keeping tabs for more than a decade now. We’ll be using his data for this piece. 

Jones has received a vote on 182 of 217 ballots, putting him at 83.9% (round to the nearest one-tenth). This is based on 205 public ballots plus 12 anonymous/unverifiable ballots.  He’s lost zero votes from returning voters, and he’s gained 15 votes from that group of voters. 

He received votes from 91.7% of first-time voters and 100% of returning voters who didn’t vote in 2025 (two total voters). It’s unclear if returning voters and returning voters who didn’t vote in 2025 overlap. However, they’re both being noted here just in case even if it’s only a difference of two voters. 

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Based on where he is at, Jones would need to receive 136 more votes to reach the 75% threshold needed to punch his ticket to Cooperstown. In turn, he needs 65.7% of the unknown ballots to vote for him. 

Given that he only received 66.2% of the total vote last year, that puts him in a good spot. He needs fewer of the remaining votes than he had total votes last year. That’s pretty reflective of his progress.

Based on the trend so far, he’s likely to get there. However, private ballots sometimes stay private for a reason. Those who don’t want to show they didn’t vote for certain players haven’t put their ballots out there. You never know. 

We’ll say this. Based on the date, losing votes from returning voters has been rare across the board. Of 27 players on the ballot, 10 of them have lost at least one vote from a returning voter. Only two of them have lost multiple votes. Jones will likely lose one previous vote out of 424 ballots at most.

His zero lost votes so far is an improvement from the seven he lost last year. First-time voters have been more favorable this year. Last year, he only got 60% of that demographic. As mentioned already, he’s at 91.7% for that demographic now. These trends are likely stay heavily in his favor, unless this large group that didn't vote for him is hiding in the shadows.

One more stat will be taken into account. Last year, the margin between the actual results and what has been labeled as pre-results (public ballots) was 6.2 percentage points. If it’s the same this year, Jones is projected to receive 77.7% of the vote. That would also mean he’s projected to get 147 more votes when he needs 136. 

With one day left before the official results are announced, we can rule his Hall of Fame candidacy as safe. 

The official announcement for those voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame will be on Tuesday, Jan. 20. It will be telecast live on MLB Network starting at 6 p.m. Those who are voted in will join Jeff Kent in heading to Cooperstown. The Giants Hall of Fame was chosen via the Eras Committee in December.