Is It Ichiro This Year and Choo Shin-soo Next Year?… MLB Network's "2026 Candidates"

Baseball Writers' Association of America Selects Retired Players as Hall of Fame Candidates

Choo Shin-soo (42), an aide to the owner of the SSG Landers, is expected to become the first Korean to be selected as a candidate for the Major League Baseball (MLB) Hall of Fame voting. On the 22nd (Korean time), MLB Network named Choo Shin-soo as a "newly registered player for the 2026 Hall of Fame candidates."

Choo Shin-soo. Photo by Yonhap News

MLB Network mentioned 13 players on social networking services (SNS) and 9 players on MLB.com video service as candidates for the 2026 Hall of Fame voting. Choo Shin-soo appeared on both lists.

The video service mentioned Choo Shin-soo, Ryan Braun, Edwin Encarnacion, Alex Gordon, Cole Hamels, Matt Kemp, Nick Markakis, Hunter Pence, and Rick Porcello as new Hall of Fame candidates for 2026. Not all players who have played for more than 10 years are registered as Hall of Fame candidates. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) selects the "real candidates" from qualified retired players to be on the ballot.

Park Chan-ho, who joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1994 and ended his MLB career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010, was not selected as a Hall of Fame candidate in 2016.

Even if Choo Shin-soo is not inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame, just being named a candidate will mark a historic "first" in Korean baseball history. Among Asian players, only three have been named MLB Hall of Fame candidates: Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, and Ichiro Suzuki.

Candidates who receive less than 5% of the vote in Hall of Fame voting lose their eligibility as candidates the following year. Nomo received 1.1%, and Matsui received 0.9%, losing their eligibility after their first vote. Ichiro, in his first year as a candidate this year, received 393 out of 394 votes, a 99.75% vote rate, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

On this day, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), which selects MLB Hall of Fame inductees, announced the voting results. Ichiro received 393 out of 394 votes, achieving a 99.75% vote rate. This result was just one vote short of a unanimous 100% vote. At a press conference in Seattle, Washington, USA, Ichiro said, "Looking back, there were really many things. Not only good things but also many hardships. I am indescribably moved to have reached today step by step." Regarding the failure to achieve unanimity, he said, "It is rather fortunate to be short by one vote. Life is about pursuing perfection in its own way," and added, "(Because of the lack of unanimity) it is incomplete, so I can move forward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.