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Blue Jays: Examining whether Edwin Encarnación remains on the Hall of Fame ballot
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Nov 21, 2025, 15:15 ESTUpdated: Nov 21, 2025, 15:10 EST
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On Monday, the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot was released.
It features two former Toronto Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle and Edwin Encarnación. The latter stayed on the ballot after receiving 11.4% of the votes last season. This will be Buehrle’s second of 10 years of eligibility, as long as he stays above the 5% threshold.
The 2026 ballot is Encarnación’s first, as he retired after the 2020 season. Over the course of his 16-year career, the designated hitter played for the Cincinnati Reds, Blue Jays, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox, making a name for himself in his third full season with the Blue Jays.
After 16 seasons in the big leagues, Encarnación finished with a .260/.350/.496 slash line with 424 home runs in 8,126 plate appearances for a 125 wRC+ and 33.5 fWAR. Unfortunately, Encarnación will not make the Hall of Fame. 
Only nine position players have a fWAR below Encarnación’s 33.5: Ray Schalk, Tommy McCarthy, Willard Brown, Lloyd Waner, George Kelly, Freddie Lindstrom, Bill Mazeroski, Monte Irvin, and Chick Hafey have a lower fWAR. Mazeroski was the last player of the bunch to retire, doing so in 1972. Mazeroski was known for his glove rather than his bat, but he’s the only player to hit a Game 7 walk-off home run in the World Series.
While Encarnación won’t make the Hall of Fame, the big question is whether he’ll even remain on the ballot after this season. One thing going for Encarnación is that he’s one of just 59 players to have hit 400 or more home runs in his career. Any player with 500 or more home runs without the alleged use of steroids tends to make it in. That said, plenty of players with 400 home runs were one-and-dones on the ballot.
Mark Teixeira hit 409 home runs in his career, accumulating 45 fWAR. In 2022, the first baseman only received six votes, or 1.5% of votes, falling shy of the 5% mark needed. Alfonso Soriano is another player who hit a similar number of home runs (412) and finished with a similar fWAR (39). Like Teixeira, Soriano only received six votes, or 1.5% of the votes.
There are a few players with a similar number of home runs as Encarnación that are in the Hall of Fame, such as Mike Piazza (427 home runs) and Cal Ripken Jr. (431 home runs), but both players played a premium position, catcher and shortstop.  Encarnación’s lack of fielding, especially after joining the Blue Jays, diminished his fWAR, as he never played more than 800 innings in the field after the 2010 season. Ironically, Encarnación broke out in 2012 once he mainly played designated hitter and some first base.
Encarnación never won any hardware either. He was an All-Star in 2013, 2014, and 2016, with MVP votes in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017, but never finished in the top 10 of MVP voting. Encarnación never even won a Silver Slugger, being edged out by Billy Butler, David Ortiz, Victor Martínez, Kendry Morales, Nelson Cruz, and J.D. Martinez when the Jays’ DH was in his prime.
Unfortunately, it seems like Encarnación will only spend one year on the ballot, similar to José Bautista last season. That said, Encarnación should have his name on the Level of Excellence as soon as possible, as he is one of their best players of all time and hit one of the Blue Jays’ most memorable home runs in history.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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