Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones have gone from center field to center stage.
Beltrán and Jones were elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in results revealed Tuesday night on MLB Network. The game’s highest individual honor went to Beltrán in his fourth try on the BBWAA ballot and Jones in his ninth.
Both Beltrán and Jones will be formally welcomed into the hallowed Hall, alongside Contemporary Baseball Era Committee honoree Jeff Kent, during induction ceremonies scheduled for July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Needing at least 75% support on the BBWAA ballot, Beltrán had his name checked on 84.2% of ballots submitted, while Jones, who was selected on only 7.3% of ballots on his first try back in 2018 (the lowest debut percentage of anyone eventually elected by the BBWAA), found support on 78.4% of ballots.
Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones have gone from center field to center stage.
Beltrán and Jones were elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in results revealed Tuesday night on MLB Network. The game’s highest individual honor went to Beltrán in his fourth try on the BBWAA ballot and Jones in his ninth.
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• Complete Hall of Fame coverageBoth Beltrán and Jones will be formally welcomed into the hallowed Hall, alongside Contemporary Baseball Era Committee honoree Jeff Kent, during induction ceremonies scheduled for July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Needing at least 75% support on the BBWAA ballot, Beltrán had his name checked on 84.2% of ballots submitted, while Jones, who was selected on only 7.3% of ballots on his first try back in 2018 (the lowest debut percentage of anyone eventually elected by the BBWAA), found support on 78.4% of ballots.
“There’s no doubt that today my life has really changed,” said Beltrán, the sixth native of Puerto Rico to be elected. “Just to be named to the Hall of Fame, what this means to me, to Puerto Rico, to our family, to our projects in Puerto Rico promoting baseball, the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy. … Today I can say I’m a Hall of Famer. I’m excited about that.”
Said Jones, the first native of Curacao to reach the Hall: “You don’t play this game to be a Hall of Famer. You play to help your team win a championship. And when you go out there and be consistent and put up numbers and then your name starts popping up [as a candidate], it’s a big honor for me, and it’s a big honor for my family.”
Amazingly, two players born one day apart in 1977 (Jones on April 23, Beltrán on April 24) received the long-anticipated news on the same day.
Though Beltrán and Jones were the only two players elected, there were notable gains made by three others. In his third of 10 potential ballot tries, second baseman Chase Utley crossed over the 50% threshold with 59.1% – a 19.3% gain from last year that puts him in great position to eventually get inducted. Meanwhile, starting pitchers Andy Pettitte (48.5% on his eighth ballot) and Félix Hernández (46.1% on his second ballot) both saw gains of more than 20% from last year.
Slugger Manny Ramirez received just 38.8% support on his 10th and final ballot, while starter Cole Hamels (23.8%) was the only first-time player on the ballot to achieve the necessary 5% support to remain on the ballot in 2027.
See here for more on Jeff Kent. This was widely acknowledged to be a weak class of first-time nominees – indeed, only one will be on the ballot again next year – and that may have helped Beltrán overcome any lingering questions about his role in the Astros sign-stealing scandal. I’m encouraged by the gains made by the pitchers, as the way starting pitchers are used now is vastly different than it was before, and it’s on the Hall voters to consider the context of when these guys played in the process. This is shorthand way of saying I’d vote for Félix Hernández and Andy Pettite, with the former for his incredible peak and the latter for his long-lasting quality, and probably Cole Hamels as well. Buster Posey headlines next year’s class. Congrats to all the inductees. Fangraphs has more.
If you’re going to elect Beltran, you need to elect Bonds.
come on, CL, you have failed to appreciate the glorious spectrum of moral ambiguity that is baseball. there are plausibly legal things that are frowned upon, like watching the catcher from second base or flipping your bat after a home run (“that’s not baseball”), there are other things that are against the rules that are considered OK anyway, like beating on trash cans in the locker room (“because everybody does it”), and then there are the rule violations that are also actually frowned upon, like steroid usage and betting on your own games.
if only this were bicycle racing, you might get your wish.