On Monday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the ballot for the 2026 Hall of Fame class.

In total, there are 27 players eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame; 15 are holdovers from previous voting years, while there are 12 first-year candidates. One of those first-year candidates is former Toronto Blue Jay Edwin Encarnación.

Encarnación was drafted in the ninth round of the 2000 draft by the Texas Rangers. Five years later, he made his big league debut with the Cincinnati Reds, where he was a slightly above-average player. In 2009, Encarnación was traded to the Blue Jays as a throw-in.

His first two seasons with the Blue Jays were nothing special, slashing .244/.305/.482 with 21 home runs in 2010 and .272/.334/.453 with 17 home runs in 2012. Entering his age-29 season in 2012, a full-time move to first base/designated hitter allowed his game to break out.

The 2012 season saw Encarnación slash .280/.384/.557 with 42 home runs in 644 plate appearances, setting a career-high in home runs. He kept up the momentum in 2013, slashing .272/370/.534 with 36 home runs, becoming a first-time All-Star. The 2014 season saw Encarnación slash .268/.354/.547 with 34 home runs in 542 plate appearances, once again earning an All-Star appearance.

For the first time since 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays made the playoffs in 2015, and Encarnación was a big part of that. That season, he slashed .277/.372/.557 with 39 home runs in 624 plate appearances. It was also the first time Encarnación made the postseason, as he slashed .275/.383/.400 with a home run in 47 plate appearances.

The Jays made the playoffs again in 2016, as Encarnación slashed .263/.357/.529, matching his career-best home runs with 42. It was the final time he made the All-Star Game, and the most notable moment of his career happened this season, as he hit a walk-off home run against the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card Game.

If Encarnación makes the Hall of Fame, he’ll undoubtedly enter as a Blue Jay. Unfortunately, the 2016 season was his final in Canada, as he signed with the Cleveland Guardians for the 2017 season. In two seasons with the Guardians, Encarnación slashed .252/.358/.490 with 70 home runs in 1,248 plate appearances.

Encarnación was traded to the Seattle Mariners before the 2019 season, spending just 65 games on the Pacific coast, slashing .241/.356/.531 with 21 home runs in 289 plate appearances. Before the 2019 trade deadline, the designated hitter was traded to the New York Yankees, where he hit 13 home runs in 197 plate appearances.

Before the 2020 season, Encarnación signed with the Chicago White Sox. When the league restarted in the summer, he slashed just .157/.250/.377 with 10 homers in 181 plate appearances, Encarnación’s final taste of big league action.

In his 16-year career, Encarnación slashed .260/.350/.496 with 424 home runs in 8,126 plate appearances for a 125 wRC+. Fangraphs has his WAR at 33.5, while Baseball-Reference has his WAR at 35.3.

It seems improbable that Encarnación remains on the ballot for 2027, much less enters the Hall of Fame. A player needs 5% of the vote to remain on the ballot, but the bWAR watermark for position players to get in is no lower than 55. His former teammate, José Bautista, fell off the ballot after one year in 2024, and Bautista had a similar career bWAR (36.8). That said, Encarnación’s name should join Bautista’s on the Level of Excellence as soon as possible.

Additionally, Mark Buehrle is also on the ballot after getting more than 5% of the vote on last year’s ballot. Buehrle spent the final three seasons of his career with the Jays, finishing his Jays’ tenure with a 3.78 ERA and 4.01 FIP in 604.1 innings pitched.