PED-era voting lines will still block the Boston Red Sox slugger’s path to Cooperstown.
When the National Baseball Hall of Fame announces the results for the Class of 2026 on Tuesday, Manny Ramirez’s name will not be read. Not because he wasn’t great enough, but because everyone already knows how this vote ends.
Ramirez enters his 10th and final year on the BBWAA ballot with 34.3% of the vote from last year. In Hall of Fame terms, that’s not “on the bubble.” That’s miles away. And while final-year candidates often see a bump from voters looking to make a statement, the math - and the history - make it clear that Manny Ramirez is not about to receive one of the largest jumps ever recorded.
This outcome has very little to do with baseball.
On the field, Ramirez is one of the most accomplished hitters the sport has ever seen.
A 12-time All-Star, nine-time Silver Slugger, two-time World Series champion, and the defining offensive force of the 2004 Red Sox title run, Ramirez dominated an entire era.
His blend of power, plate discipline, and bat control made him the most dangerous right-handed hitter of his generation, and the numbers back it up across every era-adjusted metric voters claim to value.
If Hall of Fame voting were a blind exercise - names and nuance removed, statistics only - Ramirez wouldn’t be fighting for 75%. He would have cleared it a decade ago.
But ManRam isn’t being judged in a vacuum, and he never has been.
Jun 20, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Former player Manny Ramirez was threw a ceremonial first pitch as part of the Red Sox Hall of Fame induction before a game against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)In 2009, Ramirez was suspended 50 games for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy after testing positive for human chorionic gonadotropin, a substance commonly associated with masking steroid use. Two years later, when informed of another failed test that would have resulted in a 100-game suspension, Ramirez chose retirement over serving the penalty.
That second decision mattered. It cemented his status not just as a player who failed a test, but as one who walked away rather than face accountability under the rules in place at the time.
For BBWAA voters - many of whom have spent the better part of two decades trying to define the moral boundaries of the PED era - that line is not negotiable.
Players suspected of steroid use have sometimes seen their cases evolve. Players who failed multiple tests under MLB’s formal testing program almost never do.
That’s why Ramirez’s vote total has plateaued.
It’s why, despite the passage of time and the shifting tone around PED-era evaluation, his support has never meaningfully surged. And it’s why his final year on the ballot won’t produce a miracle.
Going from 34.3% to 75% would require not just a philosophical shift, but a wholesale reversal from dozens of voters who have already made their stance clear over the last decade. Those voters aren’t suddenly changing their minds now - not in a ballot that also features cleaner cases inching closer to election.
Ramirez will eventually be remembered as one of the greatest hitters who ever lived. Heck, he already is. His postseason heroics, his peak dominance, and his role in ending Boston’s 86-year drought are secure pieces of baseball history.
But Cooperstown has never been just about greatness.
On Tuesday, the Hall of Fame will make that point again - quietly, predictably, and conclusively.
Will Manny Ramirez be selected?
No.
Aug 3, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Former Cleveland Indians players Manny Ramirez and Sandy Alomar Jr., right, acknowledge the crowd during the Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame ceremony for CC Sabathia before the game between the Guardians and the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze/Imagn Images)JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.