With newcomers Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay headlining the ballot — and Edgar Martinez up against a deadline — next year's induction class could be another sizable one. That would certainly fit with the recent trend after four players were elected this week in the 2018 class.
Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman were voted in this year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, marking the second time in four years the BBWAA elected four players. Since 2013, when the writers elected nobody, there's been a veritable flood of BBWAA inductees — at least two per year for five straight votes.