Former Braves Dale Murphy and Fred McGriff are among eight players on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot who will find out on Sunday whether they will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The announcement will be 8 p.m. on Sunday from the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego and aired on the MLB Network.
Also being considered on the Contemporary ballot are Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling. The Contemporary ballot features candidates whose primary contribution to the game came from 1980 to the present. A 16-member committee will consider the candidates and any player receiving votes on at least 75% of all ballots cast will earn induction into the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023. Those elected will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 23, along with any electees who emerge from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America election, which will be announced on Jan. 24.
The 16-member Hall of Fame Board-appointed electorate charged with the review of the Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot features Hall of Fame members and former Braves Chipper Jones and Greg Maddux along with Hall of Fame players Jack Morris, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Frank Thomas and Alan Trammell; major league executives Paul Beeston, Theo Epstein, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Dave St. Peter and Ken Williams; and veteran media members/historians Steve Hirdt, LaVelle Neal and Susan Slusser.
Murphy earned back-to-back National League Most Valuable Player Awards with the Braves in 1982-83 during a five-year stretch where he won five Gold Glove Awards in center field and four Silver Slugger Awards. A seven-time All-Star who played 18 seasons with the Braves, Phillies and Rockies, Murphy led the league in home runs twice, RBIs twice and slugging percentage twice while posting a 30 homer/30 steal season in 1983.
McGriff totaled 493 home runs over 19 seasons with the Blue Jays, Padres, Braves, Devil Rays, Cubs and Dodgers that included eight 100-RBI campaigns and six years where he finished in the Top 10 of his league’s MVP voting. He was the 1994 All-Star Game MVP and one of the leaders of the 1995 Braves team that won the World Series. McGriff led his league in homers twice while compiling a .377 career on-base percentage.
