COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and pitcher CC Sabathia are among 14 new candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot released Monday, joining 14 holdovers led by reliever Billy Wagner.

Pitcher Félix Hernández, outfielder Carlos González and infielders Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramírez also are among the newcomers joined by reliever Fernando Rodney, second baseman Ian Kinsler, second baseman/outfielder Ben Zobrist, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, catchers Russell Martin and Brian McCann, and outfielders Curtis Granderson and Adam Jones.

Wagner received 284 votes and 73.8% in the 2024 balloting, five votes shy of the 75% needed when third baseman Adrian Beltré, catcher/first baseman Joe Mauer and first baseman Todd Helton were elected. Wagner will be on the ballot for the 10th and final time.

Other holdovers include steroids-tainted stars Alex Rodriguez (134 votes, 34.8%) and Manny Ramirez (125, 32.5%) along with Andruw Jones (237, 61.6%), Carlos Beltran (220, 57.1%), Chase Utley (111, 28.8%), Omar Vizquel (68, 17.7%), Jimmy Rollins (57, 14.8%), Bobby Abreu (57, 14.8%), Andy Pettitte (52, 13.5%), Mark Buehrle (32, 8.3%), Francisco Rodríguez (30, 7.8%), Torii Hunter (28, 7.3%) and David Wright (24, 6.2%).

Gary Sheffield was dropped after receiving 246 votes and 63.9% in his 10th and final year on the ballot. He will be eligible for consideration when the ballot is selected for the committee that considered contemporary era players in December 2025.

BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years of membership are eligible to vote. Ballots must be postmarked by Dec. 31 and results will be announced Jan. 23. Anyone elected will be inducted on July 27 along with anyone chosen Dec. 8 by the hall’s classic baseball committee considering eight players and managers whose greatest contributions to the sport were before 1980.

Suzuki in 2001 joined Fred Lynn in 1975 as the only players to win AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP in the same season. Suzuki was a two-time AL batting champion and 10-time Gold Glove winner, hitting .311 with 117 homers, 780 RBIs and 509 stolen bases with Seattle (2001-12, 2018-19), the New York Yankees (2012-14) and Miami (2015-17). He had a record 262 hits in 2004.

Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award and a World Series title in 2009. He was 251-161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts, third among left-handers behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton, during 19 seasons with Cleveland (2001-08), Milwaukee (2008) and the New York Yankees (2009-19).

Hernández, the 2010 AL Cy Young winner and a six-time All-Star, won the 2010 and 2014 AL ERA titles. He was 169-136 with a 3.42 ERA and 2,524 strikeouts for Seattle from 2005-19. Hernández pitched the 23rd perfect game in major league history against Tampa Bay on Aug. 15, 2012.

González was a three-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner and the 2010 NL batting champion. He hit .285 with 234 homers, 785 RBIs and 122 stolen bases for Oakland (2008), Colorado (2009-18), Cleveland (2019) and the Chicago Cubs (2019).

Pedroia was a four-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, helping Boston to World Series titles in 2007 and 2013. He batted .299 with 140 homers, 725 and 138 steals for the Red Sox from 2006-19, winning the 2007 AL Rookie of the Year and 2008 AL MVP.

Hanley Ramírez was voted the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year and won the 2009 NL batting title, becoming a three-time All-Star. He hit .289 with 271 homers, 917 RBIs and 281 stolen bases for Boston (2005, 2015-18), the Florida and Miami Marlins (2006-12), Los Angeles Dodgers (2012-14) and Cleveland (2019).

Dick Allen, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant are being considered by the the classic era committee along with Tommy John, Steve Garvey, Ken Boyer and former Negro Leaguers John Donaldson and Vic Harris.

Right-hander Nick Martinez has accepted the Cincinnati Reds‘ $21.05 million qualifying offer.

Agent Scott Boras said Monday that Martinez had informed the MLB players’ association he will accept.

Martinez, 34, opted to stay put after a breakout season in which he finished 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 42 games in16 starts and struck out 116 batters in 142⅓ innings.

The deadline for players to accept or decline qualifying offers is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.

Martinez is 37-45 with a 4.09 ERA in 240 games (103 starts) with the Texas Rangers (2014-17), San Diego Padres (2022-23) and Reds.

After four years of middling success with the Texas Rangers, Martinez spent four seasons in Japan, thriving in 2021 with a 1.60 ERA in 140⅔ innings. He returned stateside with more fastball velocity and an elite Vulcan-grip changeup he learned while in Japan.

Before he joined the Reds, Martinez had opted out of the final two years of his contract with San Diego that would have paid him $16 million after the Padres declined their two-year, $32 million club option.

He signed a two-year deal with the Reds in 2023, which included the opt-out after the first season.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

What a week it was in college football: Five AP Top 25 teams lost to unranked opponents, and after No. 6 BYU’s defeat to Kansas, the Big 12 appears to be up for grabs after victories by Colorado and Arizona State.

The Buffaloes and Sun Devils have proved football fans wrong this season as Colorado is tied for the top spot in the Big 12 and Arizona State is a game behind. With both teams on a winning streak, what can they credit for their success?

After a rough start to the season, Billy Napier and Florida have turned things around and the Gators are one win from bowl eligibility. With an upset win over No. 22 LSU, is it time to stop questioning Napier?

Our college football experts break down key storylines and takeaways from Week 12.

Losses might be as important as wins in the CFP committee meeting room

With six new committee members, a new committee chair and a new College Football Playoff executive director, there are a lot of new faces at selection central. Each group is different. Ranking the top 25 teams is a subjective system, and this year’s committee appears to be putting an emphasis on losses — maybe more than in years past.

Who teams lose to and how has always mattered, but it might be more of a factor this year with multiple two-loss teams to sort through. It’s also a big reason why Ohio State is No. 2 and Penn State is No. 4 — close losses to highly-ranked teams. It’s never a good time for a bad loss, but it could mean the difference this year between a first-round bye, a first-round home game — or a seat on the couch. — Heather Dinich

Rivalries matter more than ever

Texas has never viewed Arkansas on par with rival Oklahoma, but Arkansas lives to torment Texas. Three years ago, the No. 15 Longhorns came to Fayetteville and were stomped 40-21. Jubilant Arkansas fans stormed the field.

But returning as conference rivals for the first time since the Razorbacks left the Southwest Conference in 1991 seemed to mean something to No. 3 Texas, too, after a tough 20-10 win over the 5-5 Razorbacks. “It was personal for sure,” senior edge rusher Barryn Sorrell said.

Quinn Ewers sealed the win by running for three yards on fourth-and-2 with 2:14 left. Rather than trying to evade linebacker Larry Worth III, Ewers decided to bull his way over him. “I just tried to put a little statement into it, that’s all,” Ewers said with a smile. “Just the history that these two programs have together, it’s going to be tough.”

Texas joining the SEC reconnected old grudge matches with Texas A&M and Arkansas. The 74,929 who showed up Saturday — the 10th-largest crowd in Arkansas history — threw their Horns Down at every opportunity. With an eight-game SEC schedule, there’s only one permanent rivalry guaranteed per school, and for the Longhorns, that will always be Oklahoma. Texas-Arkansas and Texas-Texas A&M could come and go. When college football is becoming more unrecognizable by the day, regional rivalries should be a priority. — Dave Wilson

Congrats to Colorado and Arizona State for proving us all wrong

It’s probably time to admit we were wrong about Deion Sanders’ Colorado and Kenny Dillingham’s Arizona State in 2024.

OK, maybe not all of us. But as both schools improved to 8-2 on Saturday, a preseason poll from CBS Sports resurfaced that ranked Sanders and Dillingham, respectively, as the 15th- and 16th-best coaches among the Big 12’s 16 football programs. And whether you had either coach/program that low in August, there can’t be many of us who expected either school to be here in Week 12: level alongside Iowa State for second in the Big 12 standings and in line to play at least some kind of role in the College Football Playoff picture over the final weeks of the regular season.

Colorado earned its fourth win in a row and Travis Hunter logged another entry to his Heisman Trophy résumé in a 49-24 win over Utah on Saturday, yet Sanders says the Buffaloes still “haven’t even played our best game.” Meanwhile, Arizona State reached its highest win total since 2021 on Saturday night after storming to a 21-0 first-half lead and holding off No. 16 Kansas State after halftime in a 24-14 road win, fueled by the aerial connection between Sam Leavitt (275 passing yards, three touchdowns) and Jordyn Tyson (12 catches, 176 yards, two touchdowns).

The successes at Colorado and Arizona State are a credit to the respective coaching jobs Sanders and Dillingham are executing. They’re also a credit to the concept that there remain many different paths to winning in a seemingly homogenized era of college football dominated by NIL, the transfer portal and the rest. Through 12 weeks, Colorado and Arizona State represent two of the sport’s great surprises this fall, and there are perhaps no two people more acutely aware of the doubters than the coaches leading this pair of impressive turnarounds in 2024.

“We were a three-win team twice,” Dillingham said Saturday night. “We were under NCAA sanctions. Most head coaches, to be brutally honest, you get fired if you take a job under sanctions. You don’t survive. You’re hired to be fired. That’s the nature of the beast. And right now we’re sitting here at 8-2 and couldn’t be prouder.” — Eli Lederman

South Carolina is clearly the nation’s best three-loss team

Shane Beamer’s team is not part of the logjam atop the SEC. The Gamecocks are not in the College Football Playoff mix, essentially eliminated Oct. 12 when they couldn’t hold a fourth-quarter lead at Alabama or tie the score in the closing minute. But since falling to 3-3 in Tuscaloosa, South Carolina has won four straight and continued to be one of the most consistently compelling squads on Saturdays.

After riding Kyle Kennard and the defense to wins over Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, South Carolina needed the offense to outlast Missouri, going 70 yards in 47 seconds to score the winning touchdown with 15 seconds left. Redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers is blossoming into one of the nation’s best young quarterbacks, as he set career highs for passing yards (353) and passing touchdowns (five) against Missouri. South Carolina has defeated three straight AP-ranked opponents for the first time in team history.

“We’re on the right track,” Beamer said. “The young players we have in this program right now, the quarterback, Dylan [Stewart]. You talk about the recruits that are here tonight, the ones that are committed to us. The best days of South Carolina football are right in front of us.”

There will be some what-ifs for the Gamecocks, especially in their losses to LSU and Alabama. But after a 5-7 season last fall, Beamer has recaptured his big-game magic and built a program that no opponent should want to face right now. — Adam Rittenberg

A resolute Billy Napier and his Florida team just keep getting back up

When it starts to go bad for a coach in the SEC, especially one who’s in his third season and has yet to manage a winning record, it’s usually like a two-ton truck cresting over an icy slope.

There’s no stopping the slide.

Even with the recent and dreaded vote of confidence for Florida’s Billy Napier, there are no guarantees about his future. But nobody would have predicted he had any future at Florida two months ago after an ugly home loss to Texas A&M, two weeks removed from a 41-17 beatdown by Miami at home. The speculation late that night was that Napier might be out as early as the next morning.

But he had just enough support in key areas to hang on, and most importantly, the players in his locker room still believed in him. And here we are, with two weeks left in the regular season, and the Gators are one win away from bowl eligibility after taking down LSU 27-16 at home Saturday. Another huge opportunity awaits this weekend when No. 11 Ole Miss visits the Swamp.

The Gators (5-5) have been resilient, just like their coach, and responded from a 49-17 blowout loss at Texas to play one of their most complete games of the season at home against LSU. Simply making a bowl game is hardly the standard at Florida, but the way Napier has kept his team together, continued to develop young quarterback DJ Lagway and gone about his business with accountability, humility and a quiet confidence is proof he deserves a fourth season to show he can get this program to that standard.

It’s time to get behind Napier and quit questioning him. It’s clear the Gators have a talented nucleus of younger players and that those players have their coach’s back. — Chris Low

Louisville … what are you doing?

Stanford vs. Louisville was an inconsequential game that should have flown under the radar, regardless of the result. And while the outcome — a Stanford win that ended a six-game losing streak — was a significant upset, it’s the way it happened that deserves some added attention. It might be the most improbable way a team has lost a game all season. Let’s dive in.

After trailing 35-21 in the fourth quarter, Stanford scored touchdowns with 6:37 left and 45 seconds left to cut the deficit to 35-34. At this point, I thought Stanford coach Troy Taylor, a coach who once went an entire high school season without punting, would go for the win with a 2-point conversion try. He did not. Tie score.

On the ensuing kickoff, Louisville opted against taking the ball at the 25-yard line and returned it to the 19. After a spike, a deep shot, a short pass and another deep shot all fail, Stanford took possession at its 45 with 4 seconds left. Overtime felt inevitable. Wrong.

Stanford completed a 1-yard pass only to be gifted 15 yards by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Louisville, giving the Cardinal a chance to win the game on a 57-yard field goal attempt. Improbable, still. So, what does Louisville do: jumps offside to make the kick easier. And Stanford’s Emmet Kenney took advantage, making a 52-yard field goal as time expired.

An all-time collapse. — Kyle Bonagura

Kennesaw State’s Bohannon shows class on way out

Last weekend, Kennesaw State fired coach Brian Bohannon, who helped build the program from scratch nine years ago, then ushered it from the FCS into the FBS this season. That firing didn’t stop the former FCS Coach of the Year from supporting his players before its game Saturday against Sam Houston.

In a video posted by a Kennesaw State football alum, Bohannon showed up to the team’s pregame walk to the stadium and gave the players hugs and high-fives as they walked by.

The Owls ultimately lost in overtime to fall to 1-9 but showed fight against the Bearkats, who remain in contention for the Conference USA title.

Despite being fired, Bohannon should be revered in Kennesaw for taking the Owls to the FCS playoffs four times, for elevating the program to the FBS — and for the way he graciously exited. — Jake Trotter