Surprise candidate has jumped Yankees' Andy Pettitte in Hall of Fame voting update

New York Yankees lefty and Core Four craftsman Andy Pettitte has approached his Hall of Fame journey the same way he built his legacy: steady gains under pressure, bit by bit, until the arbiters in charge realize you're always there. Poised to ride CC Sabathia's coattails a bit in the 2025-26 voting cycle, as casual viewers realized in unison that both men posted very similar careers, it seems that somebody else has usurped Pettitte's gains and stolen the headlines (shoutout to Ryan Thibodaux's remarkable tracker).

In 2024-25, pre-mass reevaluation, Pettitte clocked in at 27.9% in his seventh season of eligibility. It should be noted that such numbers are nothing to sneeze at — plenty of eventual Veterans Committee honorees, like righties Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris, found themselves scoffed at before they were eventually nodded towards. Still, with three cycles to go before elimination, Pettitte's going to need a massive turn of events if he's going to even approach the necessary 75%.

So far, so good — he's been named on 58.7% of the first 90 ballots counted. There will be a massive private vs. public dip, so he'll have to sprint way ahead of the bottom line in order to make any sort of genuine gains, but expecting Pettitte to end up in the mid-40s doesn't seem completely unreasonable. Unfortunately for the lefty and his 256 wins/playoff mastery, his leap will still fly under the radar because of a Year 2 stunner who's sprinted quicker than anyone expected: Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners.

Félix Hernández (and even Cole Hamels!) overshadowing Yankees star Andy Pettitte's Hall of Fame gains

Hernández entered the ballot last winter, and seemed poised to create a "counting stats vs. peak performance" argument that could last his full decade. What do you value more? Complete games, innings pitched, and a Cy Young surge that evoked the game's very best, or an 18-year run in the spotlight? From 2008-2015, Hernández was quite possibly the greatest young starter in baseball. It didn't go far beyond that, though, and his career was over entirely by the age of 33. Isn't that Johan Santana? Wouldn't he have to scratch and claw for admission?

With Buster Posey hitting the ballot next year, though, it seems we're getting our longevity fights out of the way one campaign earlier than expected, with voters hitting King Félix with an emphatic, "Yes, We Think You're Very Cool". In just one year, he's leaped from 20.6% to 61.1% in the early going, already netting 20 votes from returning voters and 93.3% of the newcomers. Add in comparable lefty Cole Hamels' 34.4% so far in Year 1 - when some might've projected him to fall below the entry threshold entirely and dip off the ballot — and it seems like some dueling storylines might've stolen Pettitte's thunder.

Ultimately, clearing Hernández off the ballot entirely before Year 10 should help Pettitte tremendously. The fewer roadblocks, the better. Still, it's remarkable that in what was supposed to be the seasoned left-hander's time to shine, post-Sabathia and with a clean path, the voters have flocked even more strongly to the Mariner we all worried might not have given us quite enough data to work with.