These votes are in

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America elected Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, and Mariano Rivera to the Hall of Fame in 2019. Rivera was the first unanimous choice, with Halladay and Mussina getting more than 85 percent of the vote.

The writers were sparing with their votes in the four election cycles that followed, choosing only Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Scott Rolen, and Larry Walker.

Will the backlog break this year? There’s a chance.

Based on tracking organized by Ryan Thibodaux, first-year candidate Adrián Beltré will easily gain admission. He was on all but two of the first 176 ballots made public.

Beltré signed a one-year contract to play for the Red Sox in 2010 and had an All-Star season before going on to Texas and further establishing himself as one of the best players in the game.

Todd Helton, Joe Mauer, and Billy Wagner were all at or over 80 percent in the tracking, seemingly a good sign. But percentages historically have dropped once all ballots have been counted. That trio will be sweating it out before the announcement is made Jan. 23.

If elected, Mauer would be the first catcher sent to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA since Pudge Rodríguez in 2017.

In his final year on the ballot, Gary Sheffield is showing increasing support. He was at 11.1 percent in 2018 before climbing to 55 percent last year.

The exit polling has Sheffield just below 75 percent. That doesn’t bode well for admission, but could help him land on the Contemporary Era Committee ballot in a few years.

How the six writers from the Globe voted largely reflected the national trends. Beltré and Mauer were unanimous choices and Helton and Wagner received four votes. But Sheffield landed only two. Along with Beltré and Wagner, candidates Bartolo Colón, Adrián González, Víctor Martínez, Brandon Phillips, and Manny Ramirez also spent time with the Red Sox.

Ramirez has yet to surpass 33.2 percent in seven years on the ballot because of a series of positive PED tests during his career.

Colón, González, Martínez, and Phillips are on the ballot for the first and likely only time.

Any candidates elected by the BBWAA will join longtime manager Jim Leyland in the Class of 2024. The induction ceremony is set for July 21.