Former Mets Star Gets First Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

Former New York Mets star David Wright has his first Baseball Hall of Fame vote for Class of 2024 balloting.

Wright is in his first season on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The BBWAA’s Hall of Fame ballot tracker released the first cast ballot on Saturday, provided by Adam Rubin, who covered the Mets for ESPN. His ballot included votes for 10 players, which is the maximum.

Not every voter makes their ballot public, but many do in an effort to provide transparency to the process.

Rubin’s ballot not only included Wright, who played his entire career with the Mets, but also reliever Billy Wagner, who spent part of his career with the Mets but is most closely associated with the Houston Astros. Gary Sheffield was also included. He played for the Mets late in his career. Sheffield is in his final year of eligibility on the ballot.

Wright played 14 seasons for the Mets, making seven All-Star teams, winning two Gold Gloves at third base and two Silver Slugger awards. He finished in the Top 10 in NL MVP voting four times, hit 20 or more home runs six times and drove in 100 or more runs five times. He also batted better than .300 in seven different seasons.

He is one of only four third basemen in history (along with George Brett, Chipper Jones and Mike Schmidt) with at least 350 doubles, 200 homers and 150 stolen bases.

Wright was a career .296 hitter with 242 home runs and 979 RBI. But the final four years of career were cut short by injuries, including a spinal stenosis diagnosis. He missed the entire 2017 season and only played 77 games in his final four seasons.

The rest of the votes on Rubin’s ballot went to Carlos Beltrán, Adrian Beltré, Todd Helton, Andruw Jones, Álex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez and Chase Utley.

The remaining candidates on the ballot include holdovers Omar Vizquel, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodríguez and Torii Hunter, along with first-year candidates Joe Mauer, José Bautista, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, Matt Holliday, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes and James Shields.

The complete class will be announced on Jan. 23, with voting to be completed by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America by Dec. 31. In December, a select panel will determine, if any, finalists on the Contemporary Baseball Era Managers/Executives/Umpires ballot advance to next year’s ceremony, which is set for July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

A player requires 75 percent of the votes from the BBWAA for induction.