Jim Leyland elected to Hall of Fame by Contemporary Baseball Era Ballot

Former longtime manager Jim Leyland will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being selected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee on Sunday.

Leyland spent 22 years as a manager in Major League Baseball, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers. He won 1,769 games, three pennants and the 1997 World Series title with the Marlins. Leyland was a three-time Manager of the Year (1990, 1992 and 2006). After retiring from managing following the 2013 season, Leyland led the United States to its only World Baseball Classic title in 2017.

The Era Committees — split into contemporary (1980-present) and classic (before 1980) — consider retired players no longer eligible for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, as well as managers, umpires and executives.

Leyland was one of eight candidates being considered by the committee for managers/executives/umpires for the Class of 2024. The other finalists were managers Cito Gaston, Davey Johnson and Lou Piniella; umpires Ed Montague and Joe West; and executives Bill White and Hank Peters.

Here is the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot for the @BaseballHall Class of 2024.
Former managers, executives, and umpires whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980 were eligible for consideration.
Voting results will be announced December 3rd.
— MLB (@MLB) October 19, 2023

A candidate needed to receive 75 percent of votes cast by the 16-member committee to be inducted.

Leyland received 15 of the 16 votes, and became the 23rd manager in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Piniella received 11 votes and White received 10 votes, falling short of the necessary number for induction.

Players selected for the 2024 class via the BBWAA process, if any clear the 75 percent of votes threshold, will be announced on Jan. 23. Adrián Beltré headlines a list of 12 newcomers to the traditional ballot alongside Joe Mauer, Chase Utley and David Wright. Fourteen holdovers return to the ballot, including Todd Helton, Billy Wagner and Andruw Jones.

The 2024 induction will occur on July 21 on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y.

How Leyland was elected

The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee met ahead of the start of baseball’s Winter Meetings, which begin Monday in Nashville. To gain election, a candidate must receive 12 votes. Because the voters are limited to three votes each, it is difficult for more than one person to gain 75 percent and virtually impossible for more than two to get in on a single ballot.

The 16-member panel, formerly known as the Veterans’ Committee, includes Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Bud Selig, Ted Simmons, Jim Thome and Joe Torre; major league executives Sandy Alderson, Bill DeWitt, Michael Hill, Ken Kendrick, Andy MacPhail and Phyllis Merhige; and veteran media members/historians Sean Forman, Jack O’Connell and Jesus Ortiz. — C. Trent Rosecrans, MLB senior writer

What’s next?

Next year the Eras Committee will consider those from the Classic Era, defined as those whose greatest contributions to the game were before 1980. Any individuals selected by that process will be inducted in 2025. In December 2025, the Eras Committee will consider Contemporary Baseball/Players. The cycle will then repeat. Those not elected Sunday will be eligible again in 2025. — Rosecrans

Other Hall honors

This week the winners of the Ford C. Frick Award honoring broadcasters and the Baseball Writers Association of America Career Excellence Award will be announced. The BBWAA award is announced at the organization’s annual meeting, held Tuesday in Nashville. Joel Sherman, Bruce Jenkins and the late Gerry Fraley are the finalists for that award.

The Frick Award winner will be announced Wednesday. The finalists are Joe Buck, Joe Castiglione, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ken Korach, Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper and Dan Shulman. Both the Frick and BBWAA Award winners will be honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., during Hall of Fame Weekend on July 20.

The BBWAA ballots have been mailed to voters and must be mailed to the Hall of Fame by the end of the year. Those results will be announced Jan. 23. — Rosecrans