Fred McGriff elected to Hall of Fame

The Contemporary Baseball Era committee elected just one new member of the Hall of Fame on Sunday, with one-time Dodgers first baseman Fred McGriff bound for Cooperstown.

The committee consisted of 16 members that met on Sunday at the winter meetings in San Diego. The group consisted of six Hall of Famers — Greg Maddux, Jack Morris, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Frank Thomas and Alan Trammell — seven major league executives — Paul Beeston, Theo Epstein, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Dave St. Peter and Ken Williams, Derrick Hall — plus media members LaVelle Neal and Susan Slusser, and historian Steve Hirdt.

Twelve votes (75 percent) were required for induction for the group of eight nominees whose primary baseball contributions came since 1980. McGriff received 16 votes.

Don Mattingly received eight votes, Curt Schilling seven, and Dale Murphy six votes. The other four candidates all received fewer than four votes. Each committee member was allowed to vote for up to three players, so there couldn’t be more than 11 total votes for the other four candidates.

In nineteen major league seasons, McGriff hit .284/.377/.509 with 493 home runs and a 134 wRC+, the latter ranking 27th among the 86 all-time players with at least 10,000 plate appearances.

McGriff signed with the Dodgers for his age-39 season in 2003, but was placed on the injured list for the first two times in his career that year, limited to just 86 games and 13 home runs. McGriff ended his career one year later and seven home runs shy of 500, and at the time he ranked 21st on the all-time home run list. He’s currently tied for 29th place, with Lou Gehrig.

McGriff will be inducted to the Hall of Fame on July 23, 2023 in Cooperstown. The Baseball Writers Association of America Hall of Fame voting results will be announced on January 24.