On sun-splashed day, Beltrán, Andruw, Kent enshrined in Hall

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- If it’s true that a good baseball team is strong up the middle, then the Hall of Fame roster got a significant boost Sunday as it inducted do-it-all center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, along with the most prolific power-hitting second baseman the game has ever seen in Jeff Kent.

A record 60 Hall of Famers filled the stage at the Clark Sports Center, with the three newcomers among them. Fifty-eight previously inducted immortals -- from the Class of 1972’s Sandy Koufax to last year’s three living honorees CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner -- have returned to Cooperstown to celebrate their new brethren.

Beltrán and Jones are just the third and fourth center fielders elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in nearly half a century. Since Duke Snider went in with the Class of 1980, only Kirby Puckett (2001) and Ken Griffey Jr. (2016) were counted as center fielders elected by the BBWAA until this year.

Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee at the Winter Meetings last December, is the first second baseman to join the Hall since another Astro: Craig Biggio in 2015.

CARLOS BELTRÁN

The sixth Puerto Rican elected to the Hall of Fame, Beltrán has a strong contingent in town for the weekend.

“It's very incredible that I have both of my parents here,” he said on Saturday morning. “They came from Puerto Rico -- coming to Cooperstown, you know, it’s not an easy task. … We brought probably like 150 people from the island, all family members and close friends, so they're excited, and I'm excited, too.”

A second-round Draft pick of the Royals in 1995, Beltrán debuted at 21 in ’98 and won the 1999 American League Rookie of the Year Award handily. He was bound for Cooperstown that first summer: When George Brett became the first Royal enshrined, the team played in the annual Hall of Fame Game exhibition at Doubleday Field.

“I had the chance to introduce Carlos to my good friend Orlando Cepeda as the ‘next Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico,’ That’s how much I trusted his ability and I trusted him as a person,” Brett wrote in the Hall of Fame’s 2026 yearbook.

Beltrán was in shock.

“I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ Like, I haven't played a game and you're introducing me as a Hall of Famer,” Beltrán recalled on Saturday. “I don't think that's a good statement, George. And George said, ‘Well, Carlos, everything is possible in life. If you play hard and if you continue to play good, and if you continue to develop yourself, this is an opportunity, and this is a chance that you could be here.”

Twenty-seven years later, here they are.

“It’s a thrill,” Brett said on Saturday morning between holes at the Leatherstocking Golf Course. “I was very fortunate to know Carlos when we drafted him, and following him through his Minor League career. … He became a good friend and I’m very, very happy for he and his family.”

The legend of Carlos Beltrán really took hold in the 2004 postseason following a June trade to the Astros, where he joined Kent on the roster. In the NL Division Series upset of the Braves -- with Jones in center field – and the NLCS loss to the Cardinals, Beltrán batted .435/.536/1.022 – a 1.558 OPS -- in 12 games with eight home runs.

Beltrán turned that performance into a seven-year, $119 million contract with the Mets, where he had another indelible postseason moment, though on the short end, when he took a called third strike from the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright to end Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.

There would be more Octobers for Beltrán -- he made the playoffs with the Cardinals (2012, ’13), Yankees (’15), Rangers (’16) and Astros (’17), coming up short in the 2013 World Series with St. Louis before winning a ring with Houston in his final season.

But that ring came with the allegations, revealed three years later, that the Astros had conducted an elaborate sign-stealing operation, with Beltrán the only player implicated by name. Though he was retired, it cost him his job as Mets manager before he’d even written out a lineup. Were it not for that scandal, it might not have taken Beltrán four ballots to be elected to the Hall.

During last year’s election, however, 84.2% of the BBWAA electorate felt that Beltrán had waited long enough. He’ll go in as the third player with a Mets logo on his plaque, joining Tom Seaver (Class of 1992) and Mike Piazza (2016).

ANDRUW JONES

One year after the Hall welcomed its first Japanese-born player, Jones becomes the first native of Curaçao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to be inducted. He managed the Netherlands squad in this year’s World Baseball Classic and enjoyed watching the island’s soccer team compete in the World Cup.

“I always love this game. Baseball is my life,” he said on Saturday morning. “So to get a chance to represent your country, manage your country, and get a chance to coach my son on the professional level, it was fun. I enjoyed every bit of it.

“I'm so proud of the island of Curaçao soccer team, the national team, to get there and to put Curaçao, one more time, on the map.”

Born on the 171-square-mile island north of Venezuela on April 23, 1977 -- one day before Beltrán -- Jones’ countdown to stardom seemed to begin almost immediately. He got his first glove at age 3, was playing internationally by age 11 and joined a team of 16- and 18-year-olds coached by his father when he was just 13. And before he turned 20, Jones announced himself on baseball’s biggest stage.

Starting Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees in New York at 19 years old, Jones homered in his first two at-bats to become the second player (with Gene Tenace of the A’s) to go deep in their first two Fall Classic plate appearances. And Jones is still the only teenager to homer in the World Series.

Jones was part of 10 of the Braves’ 14 consecutive division titles from 1991-2005, and his induction puts him alongside teammates Greg Maddux (Class of 2014), Tom Glavine (2014), John Smoltz (2015), Chipper Jones (2018) and Fred McGriff (2023), plus manager Bobby Cox (2014) and general manager John Schuerholz (2017), in the Hall of Fame.

“It’s great,” Jones said on Saturday when asked what it meant to join so many teammates. “It's just one of the final pieces of Braves Country, the Braves organization, to have one more Hall of Famer in that group.”

Unlike his MLB debut, Jones’ first year on the ballot in 2018 did not forecast this day. He received just 7.3% of the vote, the lowest of any candidate who was eventually elected by the BBWAA. But this time, in his ninth and penultimate chance, he cleared the 75% threshold with 78.4%, as easily as he used to run down long drives in the gap.

His plaque, naturally, will sport the Braves’ “A” logo.

JEFF KENT

Unlike his fellow inductees this year, Kent did not debut with a bang. Traded three times before he was 30, he did not establish himself as a middle-of-the-order, middle-infield star until being dealt to the Giants before his age-29 season in 1997. There, Kent formed a potent trio with Barry Bonds and J.T. Snow.

That’s when Kent’s journey to Cooperstown really began: the 2000 NL MVP Award with San Francisco, five All-Star selections and 377 career home runs, the most of any primary second baseman.

In 10 years on the BBWAA ballot, Kent topped out at 46.5% in 2023, his final year of eligibility. But like the trade to the Giants, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee offered a fresh start, and 14 of the 16 voters (87.5%) cast a ballot for him, setting him up to be cast in bronze with San Francisco’s interlocking “SF” on his plaque.

“Johnny Bench called me about a week ago,” Kent said before teeing off at Saturday morning’s golf tournament. “And he told me, he said, ‘Hey, you know, when you come in here, just act like you belong,’ you know, ‘You belong. … You deserve to be here, and you belong.’

“And so that word just keeps ringing in my mind, because it's a pretty good nugget of advice where, I think, a lot of guys come here, and they're so influenced by these great players, and you feel like you're not up to par with them. But to hear a guy like Johnny Bench -- and the other guys haven't said that word, but they've said the same type of sentiment -- those are some key words, but that was the big one.”