Which players will enjoy HOF year in 2017?

In July, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza ascended to the ranks of baseball legends when they were officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Soon, the Class of 2017 will join them in Cooperstown, N.Y. This year’s ballot was mailed to eligible members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Monday, and the results will be announced on Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. ET, live on MLB.com and MLB Network.

It’s a ballot stocked with both worthy returners and intriguing newcomers, and it’s one that is sure to inspire plenty of debate. Here is a preview of the 2017 Hall of Fame voting, with the candidates broken down into groups based on their chances of election. Holdovers are listed with their vote percentage from ’16 (75 percent is required for election).

(For a look at how the candidates fared in an informal poll of MLB.com reporters, columnists and insiders that was taken after the 2016 induction, click here).

This should be the year

Jeff Bagwell (71.6 percent) Tim Raines (69.8 percent)

This will be Raines’ final season on the ballot, after the BBWAA shrunk the eligibility window from 15 years to 10 beginning with the 2015 election. Although the Veterans Committee remains as a fallback option down the line, that now-or-never dynamic should inspire a surge in support for a player who has been trending upward. The speedy outfielder went from 46.1 percent on a crowded 2014 ballot to 55.0 percent in ’15 and then all the way to 69.8 percent in the last election.

Bagwell also saw his chances take a significant leap last time around. After four straight years of hovering between 54 and 60 percent, the former Astros first baseman made it all the way to 71.6 percent on his sixth try, putting him on the doorstep of Cooperstown.

• Hall of Fame coverage

Both cleared 75 percent in the MLB.com poll, and history is on their side as well. In the past 50 BBWAA elections, 19 players received at least 69 percent of the vote without reaching the 75-percent mark, not counting those in their final year on the ballot. All 19 are now in the Hall, and 17 of them were elected by the BBWAA the next year. That includes Piazza, who had received 69.9 percent of the vote in 2015 before getting over the hump.

Within range

Trevor Hoffman (67.3 percent)

With his 601 saves, Hoffman fared quite well in his first year on the ballot, garnering 67.3 percent of the vote. That’s a great sign, though it doesn’t guarantee election in 2017, considering the two holdover …

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