Andy Pettitte and Felix Hernandez put together legendary MLB careers for the Yankees (mostly) and Mariners very differently.
But they're both trying to end up in the same place, the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Voting results on this year's ballot will be announced Tuesday night, and neither starting pitcher is going to make it this time around.
Both, though, are trending in the right direction. Hernandez has a lot more time to get to the 75% threshold for election than Pettitte.
"Félix Hernández, who was at 20.6% as a ballot newcomer last year, has a 56.5% vote percentage in the tracker," writes MLB.com's Brian Murphy. "That huge improvement is highlighted by 46 votes from returning BBWAA members who didn't vote for King Félix in '25. Only one other player has received even 25 such new votes, and that's Andy Pettitte."
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Pettitte is up to 57.4% on Ryan Thibodeaux's tracker after finishing last year's election at 29.7% of the full votes.
"There are obviously different levels of urgency with these two hurlers," Murphy writes. "Hernández is in just his second year on the ballot while Pettitte is in his eighth. The lefty has significant ground to cover before he gets to 75%, but after gaining 14.4 percentage points of support from 2024 to '25 -- the biggest increase among any ballot veteran -- Pettitte has a chance to complete a late climb to Cooperstown a la Larry Walker, who was at 34.1% after his eighth year on the ballot but was elected to the Hall in Year 10."
Pettitte had one of those long careers that few starting pitchers will ever have again. He won five World Series titles and has a case as the most influential postseason starter ever.
Hernandez was so dominant at his peak but didn't stick around nearly as long.
They're both still chasing Cooperstown.
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