MESQUITE, Texas -- Texas Rangers outfielder David Murphy isn’t ready to open the doors of the Hall of Fame to players associated with performance-enhancing drugs.

“I think if they had a connection to performance-enhancing drugs, it’s hard for me to say that I’d let them in,” Murphy said Wednesday night. “I think it’s tough to let guys in the Hall of Fame that cheated the game when plenty of other guys didn’t.”

Murphy, speaking prior to signing autographs for fans at a Texas Rangers Winter Caravan stop, thought it was odd to see no players voted into the Hall of Fame for the first time since 1996.

“It’s a difficult choice to make from the writers’ point of view with steroids and performance-enhancing drugs being such a factor,” Murphy said.

He added that it was fun to watch those players that were linked to steroids, but that’s different than electing them into the Hall of Fame.

“A guy with seven MVPs and a guy with seven Cy Young’s, you’d like to think those guys are going to be first-ballot Hall of Famers and if those guys aren’t, you know that steroids has to play a part in that. It’s a shame.”

Murphy was encouraged that Craig Biggio got the most votes, just 39 shy of enough for induction.

“You’d like to think he’s only going to go up (in votes),” Murphy said. “It would be cool to see a guy like Craig Biggio, who I admired so much growing up, get in. He’s most likely going to be in the Hall of Fame someday and hopefully (Jeff) Bagwell gets in too.”