Andruw Jones run with the Atlanta Braves from 1996 to 2007 was one of the great stretches not just in franchise history, but in baseball history. In addition to averaging a .263/.342/.497 and 31 homers a season while also being arguably the best defensive centerfielder of all time. Andruw ended his career with 434 home runs, 152 stolen bases, 10 Gold Glove awards, 5 All-Star Game appearances, and 62.7 rWAR. Even with the steep drop-off at the end of his career, he still stands as one of the best players of his era.
Unfortunately, none of that has been good enough to convince Hall of Fame Voters to induct Andruw into Cooperstown as he is now in his seventh year on the ballot. His support has grown over the years, but has some work to do to get a real shot at getting into the Hall before he runs out of eligibility.
How many votes does Andruw Jones need to get into the Hall of Fame in 2024?
So, the easiest answer here is that the threshold for induction into Cooperstown is that a player has to appear on 75% of all ballots cast. Right now, the best estimate we have is that around 384 ballots will get sent in this year (although that isn’t a firm number as some could, in theory, not get sent in), so the target number for our purposes here is 288 votes for induction. Again, this isn’t a hard and fast number, but it is a pretty good baseline for what is going to be needed.
Andruw Jones Hall of Fame vote tracker
One of the best resources out there when it comes to Hall of Fame voting and ballots is the Baseball Hall of Fame voting tracker put together by Ryan Thibodaux. For the last several years, Ryan and his team have combed high and low to get all of the known ballot information ahead of the announcement and his spreadsheet has all the data and more needed to track how Andruw is trending this year.
One thing to note before we get to the vote tally is the difference between public and private ballots. While a large percentage of Hall of Fame voters in BBWAA make their votes public via posts on social media, articles they write explaining their choices, or just by passing the info along to Thibs directly, there is a decent chunk of voters that choose to remain private and anonymous.
That private section of the HOF voting bloc has consistently been stingier when it comes to voting guys into Cooperstown, so banking on the percentages of public votes being accurate to what the final tally will be is not likely to end well. Case in point: Andruw’s final tally last year was 58.1%, but he was on just 42.6% of private ballots in 2023. Odds are that that trend will hold true again this year, so Andruw probably won’t get in if he is on the bubble right before the class is announced.
Here is where things stand with Andruw Jones’ Hall of Fame campaign right now:
Votes Earned |
Remaining Votes Needed |
Current Voting Percentage (Public Ballots) |
|---|---|---|
|
83 |
205 |
When is the Hall of Fame announcement?
The official announcement who will comprise the 2024 Hall of Fame class will happen on January 23rd, 2024, but we will probably have a good idea of who has the best chances well before that thanks to Thibodaux’s vote tracking as it gets pretty close when the dust settles. Right now, Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, Joe Mauer, Gary Sheffield, and Wagner all are in the running at the moment, but that could change pretty quickly (although Beltre is pretty close to a lock to get in).
The newest Hall of Famers will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 21st and if everything holds in terms of voting trends, it looks like Andruw may be on the outside looking in again.
