[Dukie98]

For the third time in five years, the Hall of Fame welcomed a class of five players-- and here, they were all newcomers to the ballot. Eleven-time All-Star third baseman Bill Melton, who retired just one home run shy of the all-time record with 632, led the way with 96.6% of the vote. Second baseman George Grantham, the all-time HRDL stolen base leader who rapped 3,374 career hits, tied Melton with 96.6% of the vote. Center fielder Tommie Agee, who ripped 380 homers while swiping 780 bases and winning four Gold Gloves, received 89.4% of the vote. Southpaw Dizzy Trout, who won 262 games and two ERA titles, earned 84.1% of the vote. Righthander Bruce Berenyi notched 238 wins while fanning 3,169 opposing hitters, and he was tabbed on 81.3% of the ballots.

Melton was drafted 50th overall by the Virginia Beach Admirals, in the supplemental round of the 2015 draft. He started with a bang, blasting a league-leading 48 homers and driving in 122 runs on his way to unanimously winning the 2016 Continental League Rookie of the Year award and finishing fourth in the MVP voting. After two more 100+-RBI seasons, Melton had perhaps his finest season in 2019, when he hit .335 with 42 homers and 133 RBI's, leading the league with 10.0 WAR and finishing second in the MVP voting. Over the next seven seasons with Virginia Beach, Melton topped 30 homers six times - including 3 over 40 -- and drove in more than 100 runs six times as well. Melton had another MVP-runner up campaign in 2022, when he hit .323 with 43 homers and 128 RBI's. Following the 2026 season, when he blasted a career-high 45 homers, he jumped to the rival Charlotte Aviators. Melton was remarkably consistent in Charlotte, hitting between .294 and .309 every year, with at least 33 homers and 105 RBI's each season, including a league-leading 43 round-trippers in 2029. The Aviators won the World Championship in Melton's inaugural 2027 season in Charlotte, as he hit .349 with 8 homers and 15 RBI's in the postseason and earned World Series MVP honors. Melton nearly won another ring in 2029, as the Aviators took Seattle to the seventh game of the World Series. Melton wrapped up his career with three seasons in Detroit, before retiring after a subpar 2033 season with 632 homers - just one shy of Bryce Harper's career record. Melton made 11 All-Star teams over his storied career, finishing with 3,147 hits, a .299 average, and a .528 slugging percentage. His 1953 RBI's ranked third all-time. Melton won nine Silver Slugger awards in his 18 seasons. He was a strong postseason player, hitting .297 with 32 homers in 505 at-bats, and won four postseason series MVP awards.

Grantham, an on-base machine, was selected 21st overall by the Kansas City Mad Hatters in the 2012 draft. He posted on-base percentages over .400 in each of his first seven seasons, routinely ranking among the league leaders in walks, steals, and runs scored. After hitting .311 with 128 walks and 61 steals as a rookie in 2013, Grantham posted a .341 average with 78 steals in his sophomore campaign. In his third year, he hit .338 with a career-best .526 slugging percentage, leading the Frontier League with 49 doubles and 83 steals. He scored at least 98 runs in his first 8 seasons, leading the league with 126 runs in 2020, and he stole at least 60 bases in each of his first 12 seasons, peaking with a record-setting 101 in 2024 at age 32. After fifteen seasons with Kansas City, where he led the Frontier League in steals five times and runs scored twice, Grantham spent five years with the New Orleans Crawfish, posting an on-base percentage over .380 each year. He finished his career with the Las Vegas Aces in a part-time role. Grantham made seven All-Star teams and won five Silver Slugger awards, including four from 2014-18. He ended his career with 3374 hits (ranking sixth all-time), a .298 average and a .395 on-base percentage. He drew 1879 walks, ranking fourth all-time, and rapped 709 doubles, ranking fourth as well. He holds the all-time record with 1,158 steals, and holds of just six 100-steal seasons in history. Far from a slap hitter, he drilled 274 homers and drove in 1331 runs His 107.9 career WAR rank ninth all-time among position players. Grantham was a strong postseason player, hitting .289 with 59 extra base hits, including 15 homers, and 58 steals in 660 career postseason at-bats, making the postseason 15 times in his 21 seasons. Grantham is the first second baseman elected to the Hall of Fame in HRDL history.

Agee, a brilliant all-around center fielder, was drafted 45th overall by the Charlotte Aviators in 2016. Breaking in at age 19 in 2018, Agee won a Gold Glove in his first full season (2019) and each of the next three seasons. He had a breakout offensive season in 2021, hitting .290 with 28 homers, 111 RBI's, 119 runs scored, and 62 steals. In 2022, Agee hit .304 with a .372 on-base percentage, leading the Continental League with 142 runs scored, 86 steals, and 9.5 WAR. He topped those marks in 2024, when he was a near-unanimous MVP, winning the batting title with a .339 mark while hitting 26 homers, driving in 93 runs, scoring 124 runs, and swiping 82 bags while posting a league-leading 10.0 WAR. Agee popped at least 20 homers in each of his last eight seasons, including three years over 30, and posted two more top-three MVP finishes. In 2032, at age 33, he set career highs with 46 doubles, 39 homers, and 113 RBI's while hitting .318 and slugging .561 and scoring 130 runs. After launching 31 homers and driving in 96 runs the following year, he unexpectedly retired at age 34 after sixteen seasons in Charlotte. Over his career, Agee ripped 2840 hits, good for a .298 career average, and he slugged .477. He smacked 533 doubles and 380 home runs, while scoring 1726 runs (15th all-time) and stealing 780 bases (12th all-time). Agee was a core member of two world championship teams in 2025 and 2027, and he hit a solid .277 with 17 homers, 93 runs scored, and 59 steals in his postseason career. Agee ended his career with five All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves, three Silver sluggers , two championship rings, and one MVP trophy.

Trout was selected fifth overall by the Jacksonville Gulls in the 2014 draft. After four solid, if unspectacular, seasons for a middling franchise, Trout broke out with a brilliant 2019, going 20-6 with a league-leading 2.02 ERA, allowing just 5 homers in 249 innings while finishing second in the Cy Young Award voting. Trout posted consistently gaudy won-lost records and stingy ERA's as Jacksonville became a postseason fixture. He won 17 games four years in a row, from 2021 through 2024, while posting ERA's between 2.55 and 3.26, earning third place in the 2024 Cy Young Award voting after going 17-9 with a 2.55 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. In 2026, Trout earned his lone Cy Young Award, going 20-5 with a 2.23 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP, leading the league in victories and ERA. The following year, he led the league with 7.0 WAR, going 16-9 with a 3.20 ERA, and in 2028, Trout won a career-best 21 games, going 21-11 witha 3.26 ERA. He posted ERA's below 3.50 eleven seasons in a row, before finally showing signs of slowing down in 2030. Trout retired in 2033, after spending 19 years in a Jacksonville, and retired with a 262-181 record, a 3.31 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP, and 2897 strikeouts At the time of his induction, he ranked 9th all-time in victories and 16th in strikeouts. In the 2021 postseason, Trout led the Gulls to the World Series, going 2-0 with a 1.92 ERA, and the Gulls made a repeat World Series appearance the following year. Over his career, he went 16-14 with a career 3.21 ERA and 1.21 WHIP and 211 strikeouts in the postseason, ranking as the all-time postseason strikeout leader at the time of his induction.

Berenyi was tabbed 25th overall by the Denver Spikes in 2016. He finished as the runner-up for the Rookie of the Year voting in 2017, going 18-10 with a 2.48 ERA and 203 strikeouts. After posting a hard-luck 9-9 record despite a 2.22 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 2020, Berenyi won a career-high 20 games in 2022, posting a 2.32 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP, and 259 strikeouts while finishing second in the Cy Young voting. He repeated that second-place showing the following year, going 17-7 with a league-best 2.23 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP, and 237 strikeouts. He finished third in the Cy Young voting in 2024, going 15-6 with a sparkling 2.02 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP, allowing just 7 homers in 245 innings. Berenyi posted yet another third-place finish in 2027, going 17-10 with a 2.14 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, and 228 whiffs. He continued to pitch effectively through age 39, going 19-7 with a 3.37 ERA in 2032, before retiring after an ineffective age-40 campaign the following year. Berenyi pitched brilliantly in the postseason, notching a 2.22 ERA, yet remarkably, finished just 2-4 in 13 postseason starts. Over his career, Berenyi posted a 238-142 record with a stellar 2.91 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP, and 3169 strikeouts, good for tenth all-time. Incredibly, Berenyi made only two All-Star teams despite four top-three finishes in the Cy Young voting.

Leading vote recipients include:

Bill Melton, 3B, VB/ CHA/ DET: 96.6%
George Grantham, 2B, KC/ NOR/ LV: 96.6%
Tommie Agee, CF, CHA: 89.4%
Dizzy Trout, LHP, JAX: 84.1%
Bruce Berenyi, RHP, DEN: 81.3%
Joe Mauer, C, NOR/ BOS/ KC/ NAS/ DET: 72.3%
Kirby Puckett, CF, HOU/ CAL/ PHI: 61.7%
George "High Pockets" Kelly, 1B, TOR/ JAX: 49.7%
Trevor Story, SS, LA/ CHA/ ATL/ MIL: 47.5%
Dave Ferriss, RHP, DAL/ NAS: 42.7%
Pat Duncan, RF, SEA: 41.0%
Cody Bellinger, 1B, PHI/ DAL/ PIT/ HOU/ VAN: 40.8%

Noteworthy players who fell off the ballot include fireballer Kerry Wood, who topped 3500 strikeouts; 400 home-run club members Jim Edmonds and Mike Davis, six-time All-Star catcher Darrell Porter, and 200-game winners Willard Nixon and Rheal Cormier.

Here's a look at the newest Hall of Famers: