There are always plenty of debates raging when the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is distributed annually to voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). However, there is one thing on this year’s ballot that Atlanta Braves legend Andruw Jones thinks is a certainty: Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz should get into Cooperstown on his first year on the ballot.
Here is the compliment that former Atlanta Braves All-Star Andruw Jones paid on Twitter to former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz
When the MLB on Fox Twitter account asked the world if David Ortiz should be a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Andruw Jones was quick with this response.
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— Andruw Jones (@andruwjones25) December 16, 2021
The compliment comes from Jones, who is in his fifth year on the Hall of Fame ballot and has seen his voting total slowly rise to 33.9 percent last year. While still short of the 75 percent that is required to be elected to Cooperstown, the elevated numbers are encouraging for Jones and his backers, many of whom believe him to be the best center fielder to ever play in Major League Baseball.
As of the time of this writing, Ortiz was on track (based on the number of ballots to be made public at the Baseball Hall of Fame vote tracker) to become a member of the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot, along with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (both in their 10th and final year on the ballot). Jones, meanwhile, had been named on half of the ballots turned in, showing progression but still short of the 75-percent threshold.
Those numbers are still very early in the process, however, as only 7.7 percent of public ballots have been returned as of the time of this writing.
Jones has not only been in the news lately because of Hall of Fame candidacy, but also the meteoric rise of his son, Druw Jones, up the MLB prospect ladder. The younger Jones was recently named as the top MLB draft prospect by MLBPipeline.com.