Larry Walker draws biggest jump in HOF voting among non-inductees
Former National League MVP Larry Walker received the biggest increase of non-Hall of Fame inductees following Wednesday's announcement as the Canadian finished with 34.1 percent of votes, good for a 12.2 percent increase from 2017.
| Year | Vote % | Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 20.3 | 1st year on ballot |
| 2012 | 22.9 | +2.6 |
| 2013 | 21.6 | -1.3 |
| 2014 | 10.2 | -11.4 |
| 2015 | 11.8 | +1.6 |
| 2016 | 15.5 | +3.7 |
| 2017 | 21.9 | +6.4 |
| 2018 | 34.1 | +12.2 |
With only two years left on the ballot (each candidate has a 10-year window to be inducted), even if Walker fails to accumulate the necessary 75 percent of the vote by 2020, he still has a chance to be inducted by the Hall's Modern Baseball Era Committee.
In 1997, Larry Walker had 9.8 WAR; since 1990, only seven other players have hit or exceeded that mark in a season pic.twitter.com/gfJQo9AkN3
— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) January 24, 2018
Walker was renowned for his five-tool talent. He finished with seven Gold Glove awards to go along with three batting titles and five All-Star appearances. According to JAWS - a metric developed as a way to measure Hall of Fame worthiness by combining a player's seven-year peak of WAR - Walker (58.6) is the only non-Hall of Fame right fielder among the top 10 and boasts a higher JAWS total than the average of the 24 Hall of Famers at the position (58.1).
The former outfielder began his career with the Montreal Expos and lasted six seasons in Canada before signing as a free agent with the Colorado Rockies in 1995 on a four-year, $22.5-million contract. He'd go on to hit .332/.425/.616 and win the 1997 MVP award in 10 seasons with the Rockies before ending his career with the St. Louis Cardinals.