Beltrán, Andruw earn much-coveted Hall call

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.

• Complete 2026 Hall of Fame voting results

"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.

There were a total of 425 ballots cast, with players needing at least 319 votes for election. The 11 blank ballots received were the most since 2011, and the average ballot had 5.77 names checked.

Here is more on the two newest Hall of Famers.

CARLOS BELTRÁN

This election completes a rapid voting ascent for Beltrán, who was marked on 46.5% of ballots in his first year in 2023, 57.1% in ‘24 and 70.3% last year. Though his link to the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017 (the final season of his playing days) may have complicated his case, his production over a 20-year career with the Royals, Astros, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Yankees and Rangers won the Puerto Rican native the game’s highest honor.

“I tried not to overthink about that process,” Beltrán said. “But let me tell you, my wife, Jessica, she spent hours of time trying to basically stay in contact with the Hall of Fame Tracker. Every vote that I received, I knew that I received a vote because she would kind of scream. And I knew when I didn’t receive a vote, because she was angry.”

Beltrán announced his presence in the Majors as the AL Rookie of the Year with the Royals in 1999 and went on to become a nine-time All-Star, as well as a three-time Gold Glove winner and two-time Silver Slugger in center field. He won the World Series with Houston in 2017 and an NL pennant with the Cardinals in ‘13.

With his special combination of power and speed, the switch-hitting Beltrán was one of only five players in AL/NL history with at least 500 doubles (565), 400 homers (435) and 300 steals (312), joining Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.

With 1,582 runs and 1,587 RBIs, he is one of only 38 players in history with at least 1,500 in each of those categories.

His stolen-base success rate (86.4%) is actually the highest of any player with at least 200 career steals in the Live Ball Era (since 1920), and his 70.0 career bWAR ranks eighth among center fielders (six of the seven players ahead of him in that category were already in the Hall, with the lone exception being the still-active Mike Trout).

Beltrán will also be remembered as one of the great postseason performers of his time, having slashed .307/.412/.609 in 256 plate appearances, including a then-record-tying eight homers in the 2004 playoffs. Beltrán and Derek Jeter are the only players with a .300 average and at least 10 homers and 10 steals in the postseason.

Though the Astros scandal cost him a managerial opportunity with the Mets in 2020 and likely cost him some Hall support later on, Beltrán’s case ultimately proved undeniable.

“There’s no doubt that the Astros situation has been a topic,” Beltrán said. “And also there is no doubt that based on the stories that sometimes people share or people talk about what happened with the Astros, I feel like a lot of times, there are agendas that are not positive toward my way. When I retired from the game of baseball, I felt that everything I built in baseball, meaning relationships and the good people that I was able to relate myself with, that was going to be lost. But being back in the game of baseball [as a special assistant with the Mets], I still receive love from the people, from the players. But I understand that is a story that I have to deal with.”

ANDRUW JONES

The man who could catch just about any fly ball sent to the outfield had a Hall of Fame case that caught on in recent years. Jones went from having his name checked on just 7.3% of ballots in his first year of eligibility to obtaining entry in his ninth. The 47-year-old becomes the first Curaçao native to enter the Hall.

Jones’ 10 Gold Gloves – tied for the third most among outfielders, behind only Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays (both 12) – were key to his case, a testament to the defensive dominance that wowed fans and served as an important backbone to his Braves’ unprecedented division dominance in the 1990s and 2000s. Jones accumulated 24.4 defensive WAR, per Baseball Reference – the most of any outfielder in MLB history by 5.6.

“Honestly, I idolized Ken Griffey Jr. since I was a little kid, since I started falling in love with baseball,” Jones said. “I begged my mom to buy me a poster of Ken Griffey Jr. so I could put it in my room and hang it in there. So I wanted to be just like Ken Griffey Jr. And when you go through the Minor Leagues, everybody would say, ‘You look just like Willie Mays [in center].’ But it’s hard to compare yourself to these guys. These guys were such great baseball players… I wanted to be myself, I wanted to go out there and be the best at my position and help my team win.”

Where Jones’ case was cloudier was in the offensive department, as his .254 career average now stands as the lowest for a Hall of Fame outfielder. But Jones, a five-time All-Star, supplied big power to go with his grand glove, smacking 434 home runs in his 17 seasons with the Braves, Yankees, White Sox, Rangers and Dodgers. Mays, Griffey Jr. and Mike Schmidt – all first-ballot Hall of Famers – are the only other players with at least 400 homers and 10 Gold Gloves, and Mays and Bonds are the only other outfielders with at least seven Gold Glove seasons in which they hit 30-plus homers.

Jones’ power production and defense tailed off in the post-Atlanta portion of his career in his 30s. But his peak from 1998 to 2006, when his 54.5 bWAR ranked behind only A-Rod (70.6) and Barry Bonds (67.6), was the key to his candidacy. It took a while, but the BBWAA voters saluted Jones for his prominent peak.

Now, Jones gives the 1996-97 Braves an incredible six Hall of Fame player entrants, along with Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, to say nothing of manager Bobby Cox and general manager John Schuerholz.

“I know John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox built a dynasty for the Braves for a long time, with 14 consecutive division championships and trying to win every single game,” Jones said. “They did a really good job. And you can see on the list, so many guys in the Hall of Fame. … I’m proud to be in this elite group.”