MLB.com's Joe Trezza filled in on this edition of the Yankees Beat newsletter.

On Jan. 23, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the results of this year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, and with it, the Hall’s class of 2024 (live on MLB Network). Eligible players must receive 75 percent of the vote to earn induction into baseball’s most exclusive fraternity. 

• Hall of Fame coverage

While we wait for the Hot Stove to reignite in the New Year, let’s take a look at eight players with Yankees ties on this year’s ballot, and their chances at enshrinement in Cooperstown. 

Gary Sheffield
Years in pinstripes: 2004-06
Year on ballot: 10th
2023 percentage: 55%

In his final year on the ballot, Sheffield is starting to receive long-overdue recognition as one of the most fearsome and skilled hitters of his era. He retired with 509 home runs and an eye-popping 304 more walks than strikeouts. Per WAR, Sheffield was a better player than Vladimir Guerrero, Harmon Killebrew, David Ortiz and Willie Stargell, all Hall of Famers. Sheffield was tracking well early in publicly revealed ballots, including that of our Jon Paul Morosi. Whether Sheffield can cross the finish line will be one of the primary dramas of the Hall’s voting reveal.  

Alex Rodriguez
Years in pinstripes: 2004-16
Year on ballot: 3rd
2023 percentage: 35.7%

Rodriguez has been as polarizing with voters as he was with fans and contemporaries during his playing career. He’s been stalled in the mid-30s percentage-wise during his tenure on the ballot, with little indication that the voters who penalize him for his suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs are willing to alter their position.

Carlos Beltrán
Years in pinstripes: 2014-16
Year on ballot: 2nd
2023 percentage: 46.5%

Beltrán seems on track toward eventual induction, thanks to an excellent career that included 435 home runs, nine All-Star selections and three Gold Gloves. His last All-Star nod came at age 39 with the Yankees in 2016, part of a fruitful back half of his career that probably sealed his Cooperstown credentials.

Andy Pettitte
Years in pinstripes: 1995-2003, ’07-13
Year on ballot: 6th
2023 percentage: 17%

Pettitte’s case hasn’t resonated with voters despite significant regular-season success and a stellar postseason résumé. Though he has slightly trended upward -- from 11.3 percent in 2020 to a high of 17 percent last year -- he needs to make a big jump, and fast. If Pettitte can make an even bigger leap on the ballots this year, maybe he’ll eventually have a real shot. 

Andruw Jones
Years in pinstripes: 2011-12
Year on ballot: 7th
2023 percentage: 58.1%

Voters are taking a closer look at Jones’ case, especially the stellar first half of his career, and recent ballots reflect that. After receiving 7.3 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot, Jones has jumped an average of 12.65 percent each of the past four years. One more jump like that would put him on the precipice of induction, with a few more years of eligibility left. 

Bobby Abreu
Years in pinstripes: 2006-08
Year on ballot: 5th
2023 percentage: 15.4%

Abreu’s 2 1/2 seasons with the Yankees were something of a microcosm of his 18-year career: productive, consistent and probably underrated. The 1,476 walks he drew were the third most in baseball during his playing career, and he paired 288 homers with 400 steals, one of only five players to compile at least that many of both. But unless his case picks up steam in the near future, he seems destined for the “Hall of Very Good.”

Bartolo Colon
Years in pinstripes: 2011
Year on ballot: 1st

The ageless wonder is finally eligible for the Hall of Fame after throwing his final Major League pitch in 2018 at 45 years old. The 2005 AL Cy Young winner and four-time All-Star has long odds at induction, and he played only one of his 21 big league seasons in the Bronx. 

Matt Holliday
Years in pinstripes: 2017
Year on ballot: 1st

Holliday was a great hitter, but he probably didn’t play long enough or play enough defense to make the Hall. We’ll see how he debuts on this year’s ballot. 

Who was the oldest Yankee to win an MVP Award?

A. Joe DiMaggio  
B. Phil Rizzuto  
C. Spud Chandler  
D. Elston Howard

Jan. 8, 1913: Frank Chance hired as manager

The Hall of Fame first baseman starred for and managed the Cubs during their dominant run the previous decade, becoming available after a contract dispute with Chicago. New York co-owner Frank Farrell then negotiated a deal to bring Chance -- one of the highest-profile names in baseball -- aboard as the team’s new skipper on a lucrative three-year contract. But neither Chance nor the team’s new name -- they’d rebranded from the “Highlanders” to the “Yankees” in 1913 -- resulted in on-field success. With Chance at the helm, the club went 117-168 over the next year-plus before he resigned in mid-September 1914.

• ICYMI: Old friend and New York native Harrison Bader is back in the Big Apple after swinging a free-agent deal with the Mets.

• Gary Sheffield opens up about his final year on the ballot.

• Four reasons Sheffield belongs in the Hall of Fame, from Theo DeRosa.

• Are the Yankees poised to make a major rotation addition? Keep up on all the team’s Hot Stove buzz here.

C. Spud Chandler

The only Yankees pitcher to be named American League MVP, Chandler was 35 when he won the award in 1943.

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