On Tuesday night, the results for the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame voting came out, with Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones being the only two to receive enshrinement to Cooperstown for this year. But beyond the headlines those two grabbed with their enshrinement, what caught the eye of some fans were the players who picked up some down-ballot votes — chief among them being former AL Cy Young award winner Rick Porcello.
Porcello did have a good stretch in the mid-2010s, but his career did not scream future Hall of Famer, and he's now dropping off from the BBWAA ballot after receiving just two votes. But the fact that the former Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers starting pitcher even got two votes was quite perplexing to some.
With some voters choosing to make their choices public, they can at least defend their decision to vote for a certain player. One media member who put Porcello on his ballot was Steve Politi of NJ.com. Politi justified his Porcello vote by saying that he's simply tipping his cap to a Seton Hall alum, supporting one of his own.
The other person who voted Porcello is yet to be known, but one thing's for sure: it did invite the social media “vitriol” Politi was expecting.
Rick Porcello and the Hall of Fame: a mismatch
Porcello did spend 12 seasons in the big leagues, and he won the 2016 AL Cy Young award after he went 22-4 in 33 starts (233 innings of work), racking up 5.1 fWAR in the process. He doesn't have any other season with an fWAR tally of greater than 3.0. His peak wasn't very high, although a career ERA of 4.40 across 2096.1 big-league innings is nothing to scoff at.
Still, fans found it so bemusing that Porcello even got two votes for the Hall.
“I’m just sitting here absolutely flabbergasted that Rick Porcello got 2 votes. And I don’t think I’ve ever felt the desire to type the word, “flabbergasted” until this moment…” X user @walktana wrote.
“If you voted for Rick Porcello you should not be able to vote. That is f**king pathetic,” @EnterSamdman added.
