SI:AM | Everything You Need to Know About the Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. A quick programming note: I’ll be on a reporting trip for the next few days. Tyler Lauletta will have you covered with the newsletter until I get back on Tuesday.

In today’s SI:AM:
⚾ Hall of Fame voting results
📝 How Verducci voted
🏈 Remaining NFL coaching vacancies

If you’re reading this on SI.com, click here to subscribe and receive SI:AM directly in your inbox each morning.

Two new Hall of Famers

Two of the greatest center fielders of their generation will enter the Baseball Hall of Fame together next summer. Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones both crossed the 75% vote threshold necessary for induction when the Hall announced this year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting results on Tuesday evening. (Beltrán appeared on 84.2% of ballots, and Jones appeared on 78.4%.) They will be inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, alongside Jeff Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December.

Here’s everything you need to know about Jones and Beltrán’s path to the Hall, who missed the cut and who could be up next.

Beltrán’s later-than-expected Cooperstown call

Beltrán was considered a lock for the Hall of Fame when he retired in 2017 and likely would have gotten in on the first ballot under normal circumstances. He was a nine-time All-Star, won three Gold Gloves and hit 435 career homers. He’s one of only five players in MLB history with at least 500 doubles, 400 homers and 300 steals. (Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are the others.)

Beltrán’s candidacy suffered as a result of his involvement in the infamous Astros sign-stealing scandal, though. Beltrán spent the final year of his career in Houston in 2017, when the Astros were later found to have cheated by relaying opposing catchers’ signals to batters at the plate. Beltrán had helped devise the scheme, which violated MLB rules on using electronic means to detect opposing teams’ signs. Beltrán had been hired by the Mets to be their new manager two weeks before The Athletic broke the news of the Astros’ cheating in November 2019. On January 16, 2020, Beltrán and the Mets announced they’d reached a mutual decision that he would not manage the team.

The scandal harmed Beltrán’s standing with the voters. He received only 46.5% of the vote in his first year on the ballot in 2023 and crept up to 57.1% the following year. He fell just short last year, with 70.3%.

Beltrán will be the fifth player born in Puerto Rico inducted into the Hall, joining Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, and Iván Rodriguez.

Voters warm to Jones

While Beltrán seemed destined to eventually reach the Hall, Jones very nearly missed his window to get elected by the writers. Support for him was minimal when he first appeared on the ballot in 2018. He received just 7.3% of the vote, clearing the 5% threshold necessary for inclusion on the following year’s ballot by just 10 votes. It was a similar story in ’19, when he appeared on 7.5% of ballots.

But support for Jones’s candidacy grew steadily over the years. He came within striking distance of election last year at 66.2% before finally getting over the hump this year, his second-to-last year on the ballot.

Jones’s Hall of Fame case was an interesting one. Over a nine-year period from 1998 to 2006, he was one of the best players in the game—an all-time great fielder at perhaps the hardest defensive position, and an elite hitter. He hit 319 home runs over that span, the eighth most in the majors (including an MLB-best 51 in ’05), all while making highlight-worthy defensive plays on a nightly basis. But Jones experienced a rapid and significant decline at the end of his career. He had forgettable stints with the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Yankees, posting a lousy .214/.314/.420 slash line over the final six years of his career while also playing average-at-best corner outfield defense. He was out of the majors before he turned 36 and finished his career with two seasons in Japan.

In the end, voters decided that Jones’s incredible peak made him worthy of inclusion in the Hall. He’ll be the first player from Curaçao to be inducted.

Who missed the cut

The player who came closest to being inducted was Chase Utley with 59.1% of the vote (68 votes shy). Andy Pettitte was next with 48.5%, followed by Félix Hernández (46.1%) and Alex Rodriguez (40%). Manny Ramírez got 38.8% in his 10th and final year on the ballot.

Utley, like Jones, will rely on a torrid peak to make his Hall of Fame case. Between 2005 and ’10, he was one of the best hitters in the majors—rare for a guy who played second base. But his career counting stats, which Hall voters tend to put stock in, are lacking. He had just 1,885 career hits and 259 homers.

Pettitte and Hernández both saw significant jumps in support that could bode well for their chances of being inducted. Pettitte appeared on nearly twice as many ballots this year, while Hernández landed on 46.1% of ballots, up from 20.6% last year. Pettitte will have two more chances to get in via BBWAA voting, while Hernández was only in his second year on the ballot.

First-year players

Cole Hamels was the only player appearing on the ballot for the first time who will return in 2027. He got 23.8% of the vote. Others like Ryan Braun (3.5%), Edwin Encarnación (1.4%) and Hunter Pence (0.5%) didn’t receive enough support to appear on the ballot next year.

Next year’s newcomers

The list of players eligible to appear on the ballot for the first time next year isn’t all that impressive. Buster Posey is the only player with a real chance to eventually be inducted. Other notable players who will be eligible include Jon Lester, Brett Gardner, Ryan Zimmerman and Kyle Seager, but they don’t have Cooperstown-worthy résumés.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Here’s who Tom Verducci voted for on his Hall of Fame ballot.
Albert Breer’s Tuesday notes column leads off with some intel on how Robert Saleh landed the Titans job.
Conor Orr offers his predictions for who will fill the six remaining open NFL head coaching positions.
Bryan Fischer wonders how the rest of college football will respond to Indiana’s shocking turnaround.
Chris Mannix looks at how Jimmy Butler’s season-ending injury could impact Jonathan Kuminga’s standoff with the Warriors.
Here are James Cormack’s predictions for all nine of today’s UEFA Champions League matches.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:
5. Cole Caufield’s game-winning one-timer for the Canadiens against the Wild with just 15 seconds left.
4. A powerful dunk at a critical moment by LeBron James.
3. Victor Wembanyama’s drive and dunk that made elite defender Clint Capela look like a chump.
2. Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry’s incredible glove save.
1. Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe’s absurd block on an alley-oop attempt.