Former Baltimore Orioles Outfielder First-Time Eligible for Hall of Fame Next Year

A former Baltimore Orioles outfielder will be eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2026.

Oct 14, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis dives back to first base safely on a fielder's choice against the Kansas City Royals during the third inning in game three of the 2014 ALCS playoff baseball game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-Imagn Images | Peter G. Aiken-Imagn Images

This year's Hall of Fame inductees include three players who all spent time in the American League East, though none of that time came with the Baltimore Orioles.

Ichiro Suzuki, Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia will all have plaques hung in Cooperstown, but Mike Mussina remains the last Oriole to be honored with induction.

Next year will see a new list of players that will be first-time eligible and it is a pretty top-heavy list of men.

Headlined by Cole Hamels, there is one player who spent the majority of his career in Baltimore who could have a chance of being a down-ballot inductee, Nick Markakis.

The Orioles drafted Markakis in the first round of the 2003 MLB draft out of Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia.

The outfielder rose through the minor league system quickly, debuting in the Majors on April 3, 2006, as a defensive replacement. Markakis would go on to bat .291/.351/.448 that year across 542 plate appearances in 147 games with 16 home runs, 62 RBI, and a 106 OPS+, finishing sixth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

The first nine seasons of his 15-year career would come in Baltimore, and see the outfielder bat .290/.358/.435 across 5,966 plate appearances in 1,365 games with 141 home runs, 658 RBI, and a 113 OPS+.

Markakis would sign with the Atlanta Braves as a free agent ahead of the 2015 campaign, spending the remaining six years of his career there. In that time, he batted .283/.357/.402 across 3,355 plate appearances in 789 games with 48 home runs, 388 RBI, and a 103 OPS+.

The outfielder is a one-time All-Star, one-time Silver Slugger, and three-Gold Glover while finishing in the running for MVP voting once with an 18th-place rank in 2018.

It is certainly a weak group of talent that will be entering the ballot for the first time next year, but Markakis is unquestionably near the top of that group.