For all the yearly discourse around the Baseball Hall of Fame, which usually involves the famous players not voted in, the merits of the PED era, and various other transgressions, the place is really all that. Having once visited Cooperstown, I can attest that the pilgrimage and the building itself are something that need to be experienced by all baseball fans. Having said that, it is still kind of upsetting that a museum that is supposed to recount the history of the sport in its entirety still feels incomplete when it comes to its recent past.
This began last December as the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee was clear in its disdain for the controversy around the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom fell well short of a selection, while also denying a Hall of Fame spot for other key cogs of baseball history, such as Don Mattingly, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela. The committee voting was at least sensible enough to right a wrong by finally giving Jeff Kent his flowers, years after he fell off the traditional ballots system.
As those results were just revealed this week, there were no surprises, as a couple of near-misses from last year made the jump towards the 75% voting threshold. Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltrán will join Kent during this summer’s enshrinement ceremony, becoming valuable additions to the Cooperstown museum and points of pride for the franchises that employed them during their heydays. At the same time, Manny Ramirez, the prodigious but troubled slugger, fell short of 40% in his final year of the ballot, while no first-year candidate broke through with a strong showing.
Ballot returnees Chase Utley and Félix Hernández had a significant increase in their percentages, possibly guaranteeing the call in the near future, while the door is open towards another short class in 2027. San Francisco’s stalwart catcher Buster Posey is almost a lock to receive enough support as a first-ballot selection, while the next Veterans Committee will have to decide if enough wounds are healed to grant Pete Rose a posthumous enshrinement following the blessing from the Commissioner’s Office.
As usual, there will be plenty of hot takes around what the Hall of Fame is and what it is supposed to be, but for now, at least we have the clarity and joy of adding three great players to the walls of the Plaque Gallery in Cooperstown. Before pitchers and catchers start to report and the last free agents find a new home, let’s take some time to highlight why Jones, Beltran, and Kent have now achieved baseball immortality.
In many ways, Andruw Jones was a victim of poor timing. He arrived in the major leagues a year after Atlanta won the first and only championship during their long-standing dominance of the NL East. He was not even the most notable Jones on the team, with Chipper earning that title by a landslide. Then you had the trio of Smoltz, Maddux, and Glavine earning many of the accolades around the team, which ultimately relegated Andruw to a sidekick role on those mighty squads, much like Bernie Williams in the Yankees (although his omission from the so-called “Core Four” remains a travesty to be reviewed at another occasion).
Jones announced his arrival as a precocious 19-year-old in the 1996 World Series, clubbing a couple of homers as Atlanta took a 2-0 lead over the Yankees, but his team would blow that lead in what became the start of a string of postseason heartbreak. Nevertheless, Jones never really stopped from there, becoming a force at the plate while also displaying some of the most prodigious center field defense the sport has ever seen.
From 1997 to 2006, Andruw added a clear argument when it comes to peak performance and Hall of Fame voting. During this span, he averaged 33 homers and 100 RBI per season, posted a 117 OPS+, accumulated 57.9 fWAR, and earned nine straight Gold Gloves. His best year came in 2005, when he led the NL in homers and RBI, earned the lone Silver Slugger award of his career, and finished second in MVP voting. Jones’s durability was also notable, with at least 153 games played every season from 1997 to 2007, with Atlanta winning every division title until the Mets finally dethroned them in 2006.
Even as Jones remained a steady presence in October, he failed to garner another signature moment following his rookie heroics, but he still was a solid performer who finished his career with 10 postseason homers in 76 games, with a respectable .796 OPS. The lack of championships could have been a knock on his résumé, but the real reason it took him nine years on the ballots before being voted in came in the form of a pronounced late-career collapse. Jones managed to win his tenth straight Gold Glove in 2007, but he also posted career-worst offensive numbers at the time, prompting Atlanta to let him walk as a free agent.
For a solid decade, he was the best defensive player in the league while also putting up very impressive offensive numbers. Although he had an insanely sharp decline.
But people forget 10 years of diving and banging into walls took a huge toll on his body. If he retired 3-4… pic.twitter.com/2KfWHT5HiV
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) January 20, 2026
The final stretch of his MLB tenure was frankly tough to watch, as Jones regressed badly in all facets of the game, playing for four teams over the last five years of his career. What once was a star became a role player that ended up calling it quits at age 35 with the same Yankees that he had tormented as a teenager. The full-circle moment may have been poetic in some ways, but it was also a reminder of how Father Time is undefeated. Playing during an era of mighty sluggers, Jones’s talent profile may not have been appreciated fully at the time, in yet another instance of bad timing. However, his Hall of Fame case gained steam slowly and has now culminated in a worthy selection to join Chipper, Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux as the final piece of the memorable 90’s Atlanta puzzle in Cooperstown.
Beltran became the top vote-getter of this class, with a gaudy 84% of ballots choosing him to join the Hall of Fame, and it is easy to see why. Unlike Jones, who had a clear peak followed by a steep decline, Beltran enjoyed a much more evened-out career path, even as he started as a big fish in the small pond of Kansas City. It is hard to fathom just how bad the Royals used to be at the turn of the millennium, as Beltran became the bright spot of a team that never sniffed the postseason and even lost 100 games in 2002. The young center fielder managed to win Rookie of the Year in 1999 and consistently posted 4-WAR seasons (outside of an injury-plagued 2000 campaign) during his time with the Royals, but it became clear that his talents would be better used elsewhere.
With the inevitability of Beltran becoming prohibitively expensive for the Royals, he was traded in a transaction that included the immortal Octavio Dotel to the Astros, just as they were entering their contending phase. With 23 homers and a 4.5 fWAR in just 90 games, Beltran became one of the best mid-season trades in history, but it was his playoff performance that clearly put him on a Hall of Fame path. The upstart Astros first eliminated Atlanta and then pushed the mighty Cardinals to seven games in the 2004 postseason, as Beltran went on a bender that hasn’t been replicated since. In only 12 games and 56 plate appearances, the free-agent-to-be collected 20 hits, walked eight times, hit eight homers, stole six bases, and drove in 14 runs. While Beltran’s exploits were not enough to reach the World Series, he added nearly 20% of championship probability and became a folk hero in Houston.
As the prize of the next free agent cycle, Beltran was signed to a nice nine-figure deal by the Mets, who welcomed him as the franchise savior, one who would join David Wright to finally push New York over the hump. In many ways, his tenure in Queens was a massive success, with Beltran posting 31.1 fWAR in seven seasons with the Mets, hitting nearly 150 homers while also swiping 100 bases. He was also a five-time All-Star and finished fourth in the 2006 NL MVP vote. However, he was also part of a turbulent time (as usual) for the Mets, as this era was defined by late-season collapses and failed expectations. He was also scapegoated for his called third strike taken in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, which somehow was the only playoff season he had with the team.
The Hall of Fame achievements of Carlos Beltrán! pic.twitter.com/chERI6n4D3
— MLB (@MLB) January 20, 2026
Beltran’s Mets tenure ended unceremoniously with a 2011 trade to the Giants, which at least netted the franchise a future star in Zack Wheeler, but he was clearly not done with being a quality player. In his final six seasons, which covered his age 35 to 40 span, Beltran was able to add 133 homers to his ledger while constantly posting above-average batting lines and being part of playoff teams. While he was pretty far from his early Houston exploits, his veteran presence was usually lauded and culminated with the only championship of his career, playing a modest role on the field for those same Astros in 2017.
Beltran’s baseball life post-retirement became interesting after being considered among the masterminds behind the Astros’ cheating scandal in 2017, a transgression that ultimately cost him his job as Mets manager and probably played a role in his delayed selection to the Hall of Fame. As stated before, though, Hall of Fame voters tend to be selective when it comes to character flaws, with Beltran being universally liked in baseball and possessing enough stats and accolades to be enshrined. His selection should also be beneficial to other potential Hall of Famers involved in similar scandals, such as Jose Altuve, and that is also noteworthy when it comes to this voting cycle.
In the end, Beltran had that memorable postseason, ended his career with a title, and posted a rare 400-homer/300-steals stat line that will look cool on his bronze plaque next summer. He has chosen to don a Mets cap in his enshrinement, which should hopefully allow some fans to forgive him for that strike three to end the NLCS – even if most don’t want to admit that it was a nasty Adam Wainwright curveball.
After retiring in 2008, Jeff Kent never felt like a lock for the Hall of Fame despite his gaudy career numbers. In fact, he did not come particularly close during his ten years on the traditional ballot, as he topped out at 46% in his final year of eligibility. While it was understandable to consider Kent a fringe Hall of Famer, his low vote totals were controversial in hindsight, especially considering the low representation of second basemen in the Hall. More thoughtful reviews of his stats and the era in which he played were enough to make him the lone selection in the special committee voting in December.
His upcoming enshrinement will serve as a testament to the different paths a baseball player can take towards becoming a star. Drafted in the 20th round by the Blue Jays in 1989, Kent was a late bloomer with a rocky start to his career, which included a trade to the Mets during his first stint in the league, at age 24. New York would provide his first long look at the big leagues, but it was mostly unremarkable outside of a few flashes of brilliance, as the second baseman would be an average player with modest power through his age-28 season, when he was again traded mid-season, this time to Cleveland.
A late 1996 trade would be the turning point of Kent’s career, as he joined the San Francisco Giants as they began their ascendance towards contention, headlined by Barry Bonds and a slew of impact players. Kent would explode as soon as he joined the Giants, becoming one of the team’s most popular players in the final seasons of Candlestick Park. Playing a position that was not usually linked to power numbers, Kent helped redefine what a second baseman could provide with the bat, averaging nearly 30 homers and over 100 RBI per season during his San Francisco tenure. This included the superlative 2000 season, with a 162 OPS+, 41 homers, and an MVP award in which he beat Bonds and Mike Piazza atop the leaderboard.
17 seasons in Major League Baseball with 6 different ball clubs, and more home runs than any second baseman in MLB history. Tonight, Jeff Kent achieves baseball immortality. pic.twitter.com/GE5jZIpRzb
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) December 8, 2025
Looking at an upcoming free agent payday, Kent could have ended his Giants history with a title, but was part of the collapse that saw the team fall in seven games to the Angels and the Rally Monkey. Kent hit three homers in the series and was an essential cog in the offense, but the frustration of losing the title and his constant conflicts with Bonds were enough to see him leave in free agency. At age 35, he joined the Astros and remained productive but never again reached the numbers he had posted by the Bay. A subsequent free agency period later, Kent would become a Dodger and earn the derision of the fans who used to cheer him on, but he had a nice four-year tenure to close his career, including an All-Star nod in 2005 and a starting gig in the 2008 NLCS as the last plate appearances he would ever see.
With 377 homers to his name, Jeff Kent still holds the record for the most homers by a primary second baseman ever, and that was his biggest calling card. With his name being selected in 14 out of 16 committee ballots, it is clear that he had enough lobbying and support, whereas some of his most controversial contemporaries have failed to get over the hump and should continue to struggle in future regular and special ballots. Nevertheless, Kent is a deserving selection as an important part of the late 90s and early 2000s, especially as he ushered in a new era of power hitting for up-the-middle position players. Even as he is the clear third wheel of the upcoming ceremony, his selection could play an important role in former frenemy Bonds making it someday.
