Carlos Beltrán, whose power and grace produced 435 home runs and three Gold Glove awards across a 20-year career, earned election to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Jan. 20, culminating a steady climb toward induction for one of the game’s greatest switch-hitting center fielders.
Joining him in Cooperstown: Andruw Jones, whose 434 home runs and excellent center field defense were waylaid by a steep late-career decline. He narrowly cleared the bar for Cooperstown, earning mention on 78.4% of ballots in this, his ninth appearance on the ballot.
Beltrán, 48, was named on 358 of 425 ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, a 84.2% rate that easily vaulted the 75% required for election. He is Cooperstown-bound in his fourth appearance on the ballot, which began when he received just 46.5% of the vote in his first appearance in 2023.
Beltrán debuted with the Kansas City Royals in 1998 and finished his career with the Houston Astros in 2017, earning his first World Series championship as a part-time, 40-year-old DH. Two years later, it was revealed he was one of the architects of the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing scheme that year.
The imbroglio cost him his job managing the New York Mets in 2020, and likely delayed his Hall election. Yet he would not be denied on his fourth attempt.
