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Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman lead first-time Hall of Fame candidates and join 17 holdovers up for vote to be enshrined in Cooperstown with slugger Mark McGwire and shortstop Alan Trammell in their final year on the ballot. There are a total of 15 first-time candidates on the 2016 Hall of Fame ballot being mailed this week to approximately 475 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
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Near-miss repeat candidate Mike Piazza, who fell just short of the 75 percent of votes in the 2015 Hall of Fame class that featured Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, appears on the 2016 ballot.
Griffey Jr., Hoffman and infielders David Eckstein, Troy Glaus and Mike Lowell are newcomers. Piazza polled 69.9 percent of the electorate in 2015 and fell 28 votes shy of the required amount for election.
The only other players to be named on more than half the ballots were first baseman Jeff Bagwell (55.7) and outfielder Tim Raines (55.0).
Griffey played 22 seasons and was American League MVP in 1997 with the Seattle Mariners. He ended his career with 2,781 hits, including 630 home runs, the sixth-highest total in MLB history. A 13-time All-Star, Griffey won 10 Gold Glove Awards and seven Silver Slugger Awards.
Hoffman's 601 career saves and 856 games finished are second only to Mariano Rivera's MLB-record totals of 652 and 952. He played 18 seasons with the Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, finished in the top 10 of NL Cy Young Award voting four times and was the runner-up twice, in 1998 and 2006.
---Cleveland Indians outfielder Michael Brantley underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder and will need 5-to-6 months to recover.
The team announced that Brantley had the surgery to repair a small tear in the labrum of Brantley's non-throwing shoulder.
Brantley originally injured his right shoulder diving for a ball in the third inning on Sept. 22 in Minnesota and was limited to seven plate appearances during the remainder of the 2015 season.
The 28-year-old Brantley battled injuries last season, hitting .310 with 15 home runs and 84 RBIs, with a major-league-leading 45 doubles, in 137 games.
---New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson will miss this week's general manager meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., to undergo an unspecified medical procedure.
Alderson fainted last Wednesday while meeting with reporters at a press conference. Assistant general manager John Ricco didn't state whether the procedure is related or not to the fainting incident, due to Alderson's request.
"He had a medical procedure that was scheduled after the season ended and because of the playoff run it got pushed back, kept getting pushed and pushed, and obviously for good reason," Ricco told reporters on the opening day of the four-day session. "And so he's going to have it done this week."
Ricco and front-office executives J.P. Ricciardi and Paul DePodesta are handling the Mets' business at the meetings. Ricco said Alderson will be apprised of developments.
