MLB Hall of Fame voting: Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent trending up

The voting results were revealed for the 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame class. Former San Francisco Giants standouts Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent failed to be inducted, but they are trending in the right direction.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Derek Jeter and Larry Walker earned the requisite number of votes to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On the outside looking in once again were former San Francisco Giants stars Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.

In order to be inducted, players need to appear on at least 75 percent of the ballots.

Bonds received 60.7 percent of the vote in his eighth year of eligibility. That means he was 57 votes short of enshrinement from the panel of 397 voters.

Kent netted 27.5 percent of the vote in his seventh year on the ballot.

While neither player is exactly knocking on the door, both are trending in the right direction based on their previous balloting success.

Here’s a look at how Bonds has progressed over the years:

• 2020: 60.7%
• 2019: 59.1%
• 2018: 56.4%
• 2017: 53.8%
• 2016: 44.3%
• 2015: 36.8%
• 2014: 34.7%
• 2013: 36.2%

And here’s how Kent has been trending since his first year on the ballot:

• 2020: 27.5%
• 2019: 18.1%
• 2018: 14.5%
• 2017: 16.7%
• 2016: 16.6%
• 2015: 14.0%
• 2014: 15.2%

With a thin field of newcomers on next year’s ballot led by Torii Hunter, Mark Buehrle, Tim Hudson and Aramis Ramirez, voters should have some additional slots open within the 10-player limit.

Curt Schilling (70.0%), Roger Clemens (61.0%) and Bonds (60.7%) are all within striking distance, though lack of room on voter’s ballots has not been the rest those three players have failed to be inducted to this point.

Still, with no clear-cut newcomers worthy of enshrinement, this could be the year that some of the holdouts finally throw a vote at Bonds and Clemens.

As for Kent, he has a lot of ground to cover in his final three years on the ballot, but the significant spike he saw this year is an encouraging sign.

For comparison’s sake, Larry Walker received just 21.9 percent of the vote in his seventh year on the ballot and he was just elected in his 10th and final year of eligibility, so there is still some hope that Kent will be able to climb that mountain as well.