Bagwell, Hoffman and Raines were three of the five players – along with electees Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza – who received at least 67.3 percent of the BBWAA vote in 2016. It marked just the fifth time in the history of the vote that as many as five players reached that percentage – and the first time that it had happened in back-to-back years.

Every player who has ever cleared the 65-percent threshold in any one BBWAA election has eventually been inducted into the Hall of Fame, save for Jack Morris – who exhausted his BBWAA eligibility in 2015 and will not be eligible for the Modern Baseball Era Committee consideration until the fall of 2017.

Bagwell, who won the 1991 National League Rookie of the Year Award and the 1994 NL MVP Award during his 15-year career with the Astros, earned 71.6 percent of the BBWAA vote in 2016 and missed election by only 15 votes. The four-time NL All-Star topped the 30-home run mark nine times and averaged better than 100 runs scored and 100 RBI per season, posting a career .408 on-base percentage and a .540 slugging percentage.

Raines returns to the BBWAA ballot for the 10th-and-final time in 2017, having earned 69.8 percent of the vote a year ago. A seven-time All-Star and four-time NL stolen base champion, Raines compiled a .294 batting average and .385 on-base percentage as one of the game’s top leadoff hitters of his era. He succeeded in 808 of his 954 career stolen base attempts, the best percentage (84.7) of any player with at least 400 steals.

Hoffman debuted on the BBWAA ballot last year with 67.3 percent of the vote, becoming just the sixth player in history to receive between 66.7 and 74.9 percent of the vote in his first year eligible. Each of the five previous players (Roberto Alomar, Yogi Berra, Craig Biggio, Whitey Ford and Gaylord Perry) were elected to the Hall of Fame in either the year after their debut (Alomar Berra and Ford) or in their third year of eligibility (Biggio and Perry).

Hoffman was a seven-time All-Star who was the first pitcher to reach the 600-save plateau, finishing with 601 in a career that spanned 18 years. His career hits per innings pitched ratio of 6.989 is the best of any qualifying relief pitcher and eighth among all pitchers, and his career WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched) of 1.058 also ranks eighth all-time.

Twelve other players will return to the BBWAA ballot this year, including (in order of their 2016 vote percentage): Curt Schilling (52.3 percent), Roger Clemens (45.2), Barry Bonds (44.3), Edgar Martínez (43.4), Mike Mussina (43.0), Lee Smith (34.1), Fred McGriff (20.9), Jeff Kent (16.6), Larry Walker (15.5), Gary Sheffield (11.6), Billy Wagner (10.5) and Sammy Sosa (7.0). Smith is making his final appearance on the BBWAA ballot.