Who will be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2024?

This week, the Baseball Writers Association of America elected Scott Rolen to the Hall of Fame, just one player from a ballot that had 28 names on it. (Granted, some of those players really weren’t Hall-worthy, and 12 of them received either no votes or one vote, and dropped off next year’s ballot.)

Todd Helton came 11 votes short of induction and Billy Wagner 27 votes short, and both of those men have an excellent chance of being inducted next year.

Of the 28 men on this year’s ballot, 14 will appear on the 2024 ballot — Jeff Kent drops off after 10 years on the BBWAA ballot and could be elected by one of the Era Committees in the future.

The Hall usually likes around 30 or so players on each year’s ballot. Here are some of the players who could be included for the next round of balloting, which will be conducted at the end of this year for 2024 induction, in alphabetical order:

José Bautista, Adrián Beltré, Bartolo Colon, Yovani Gallardo, Adrián González, Chase Headley, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer, Brandon Phillips, José Reyes, Denard Span, Chase Utley, David Wright

That would bring next year’s ballot to 28 players, same as this year. Clearly, some of those players, while all very good players, aren’t Hall-worthy.

There are two players on that list who are no-brainer Hall of Famers.

First is Beltré, who had 3,166 career hits, 477 home runs and won five Gold Gloves. He’s one of the greatest third basemen of all time and should go in on the first ballot.

Mauer is a closer call. The first half of his career looked like he might go down in history as the greatest catcher of all time, highlighted by his spectacular 2009 season, when he hit .365/.444/.587 and was named AL MVP. He won three Gold Gloves behind the plate, but injuries forced him to first base and the second half of his career was pretty ordinary. Still, his 10 great years and more than 900 games at catcher make him a Hall of Famer, but not necessarily on the first ballot.

Wright’s career has similarities to Mauer’s. In his first 10 seasons, through age 30, he hit .301/.382/.506, got seven All-Star nods and won two Gold Gloves. Injuries forced his retirement at 33 (except for a couple of “thank you” at-bats in 2018 at age 35). His career numbers, then, don’t have the counting stats a Hall of Famer usually does, but he was among the best players in baseball for a decade and without the injuries, he probably goes on to a 3,000-hit career.

Utley’s career at second base — same thing as above, a decade of real greatness followed by several average-ish years at the end. The counting stats aren’t spectacular — his top bb-ref comp is Ian Kinsler, and no one’s promoting Kinsler for the Hall. While I would vote for Mauer and might be able to be swayed to vote for Wright, if I had a vote, I don’t think I would vote for Utley.

There’s no one else on the new list that stands out, with the possible exception of Bartolo Colon, who had a better career than you think. 247 wins, 2,535 strikeouts, seven postseasons, a Cy Young Award. He’d certainly have fun speaking in Cooperstown and probably draw a large crowd to upstate New York. I hope he gets enough votes (20 or so would do it) to stay on the ballot for more than one year.

Who would you elect to the Hall from among the players who will be added next time?