Second to none: Slugging second baseman Jeff Kent earns Hall of Fame election

Second baseman Jeff Kent, who distinguished himself with a consistently powerful bat for a nearly two-decade long career while manning the keystone, has now earned a bronze plaque in Cooperstown.

Kent, elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, Dec. 7, was one of the eight candidates the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee considered. Named on 14 of 16 ballots, he was the only to reach the 75-percent threshold necessary for election.

The Hall of Fame, previously comprised of 351 elected members, has now added at least a new name to its hallowed roster. Kent will be joined in the Class of 2026 by any electees from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America election to be announced on Jan. 20 live from Cooperstown.

In making the announcement live on MLB Network, Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch read off a list of the Class of 2026 electee’s accomplishments before ending with, “Jeff Kent, welcome to Cooperstown.”

Welcome to Cooperstown, Jeff Kent!https://t.co/zsVeL7hhV8 pic.twitter.com/I5O5J3eNMt

— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) December 8, 2025

During a Zoom call with reporters after learning of his election, Kent was often emotional talking about his election to the sport’s greatest team.

“I’m stuttering here because it has not sunk in,” he said. “I didn’t think about it much during the 10 years of opportunity to get voted in (by the BBWAA). It came up every year and the moments seem to pass by. Not utter disappointment, but just disappointment. Frustration a little bit that I wasn't better recognized, not necessarily that I wasn’t voted in.

“But a lot of people had said, ‘Hey, you know, you’re a Hall of Famer, blah, blah, blah.’ As the time has gone by you leave it alone. And I left it alone. I loved the game. Everything I gave to the game, I left there on the field. And then in this moment, today, over the last few days, absolutely unprepared, emotionally unstable.”

Asked for his thoughts at that moment, Kent said they were “clouded.”

“I don’t even know what the right word is. They’re just jumbled so much,” Kent said. “When I hugged my wife after the phone call had come in, she was the only one that had known, and I told her that. A lot of the game had come rushing back to me at that moment.

“And similar to my retirement speech, my farewell speech that I did in LA, it reminds me of the ‘no crying in baseball.’ Well, I was bawling when I left the game, because all that emotion just overcomes you because you think about all that time that you play in the game…but all of my game just came rushing back in five minutes, and it’s just overwhelming.”

The 57-year-old Kent played 17 seasons with the Blue Jays, the Mets, the Indians, the Giants, the Astros and the Dodgers, retiring after the 2008 campaign as the all-time leader in home runs as a second baseman, with 351 of his 377 career long balls coming at that position.

A lifetime .290 hitter with an .855 OPS, he notched 2,461 hits, including 560 doubles, good for 30th all-time and the third most among all players during his career. During a nine-year stretch from 1997 to 2005, he averaged 28 homers and 110 runs batted in and registered eight 100 RBI seasons, five All-Star appearances and four Silver Slugger Awards. One of just six second basemen to hit 30 or more homers three times, he is the only second baseman to drive in 100 runs in eight seasons. 

Kent was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 2000 when he batted .334 with 33 homers, 125 RBI and 114 runs scored for the Giants. A Southern California native who grew up in Huntington Beach, Kent, besides capturing the 2000 NL MVP Award, finished in the Top 10 of the NL MVP voting in three other years.

In 2002, he helped lead San Francisco to the NL pennant and went on to slug three homers in the World Series against the Angels.

Asked who he has to thank most for his diamond success, Kent singled out Dusty Baker, his manager for all six of his seasons with the San Francisco Giants.

“I don’t think there was a fire under my (behind) that was lit hotter than what he did,” Kent said. “I had a couple managers in New York, but when I got to San Francisco it was Dusty Baker that was kind of a guy that really forced me and managed my hitting ability to be a better all-around hitter…My wife kept me sane every night coming home. She would be one for sure, top of the list, but a guy that was a baseball guy, it had to be Dusty for sure.”

One year after retiring as an active player, Kent played in the inaugural Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown in 2009 and again in 2010.

“That was my first time being there. It’s nostalgic, old-school nostalgic. It was playing in that stadium (Doubleday Field), meeting some of the current Hall of Famers at the time, playing in that game, it was overwhelming to be honest with you,” Kent said. “Though I never took a tour. They offered for me to take a tour of the facility. I did not. So, I’m going in as a fresh rookie. I have not walked through the halls of the Hall of Fame, and that’s going to be overwhelming once I get in there.”

The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which held its meeting at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., considered a ballot of eight player candidates whose primary contribution to the game came since 1980.

Results of the Contemporary Baseball Era Ballot (12 votes needed for election): Jeff Kent (14 votes, 87.5%); Carlos Delgado (9 votes, 56.3%); Don Mattingly (6 votes, 37.5%); Dale Murphy (6 votes, 37.5%); Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela each received less than five votes.

Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum