Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones Elected to Hall of Fame by BBWAA

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, who were born within one day of each other in 1977, moved even closer together Tuesday as the two center fielders were elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and tabulated by Ernst & Young.

Players are elected to the Hall provided they are named on at least 75 percent of ballots cast by eligible voting members of the BBWAA. With 425 ballots, including 11 blanks, cast in the 2026 election, candidates needed to receive 319 votes to be elected.

Beltrán, who was in his fourth year on the ballot, topped the lists of 27 candidates with 358 votes, which accounted for 84.2 percent of the electorate. Jones made the grade in his ninth year on the ballot with 333 votes (78.4). Jones was born April 23, 1977 in Willemstad, Curaçao, the day before Beltrán’s arrival in Manati, Puerto Rico.

They will be honored during Induction Weekend 2026 July 24-27 in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the July 26 Induction Ceremony on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center along with infielder Jeff Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee last month in Orlando.

Also being honored that weekend will be the Ford C. Frick Award winner for baseball broadcasting, Joe Buck, and the BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner for baseball writing, Paul Hoynes, July 25 at the Awards Presentation.

Beltrán was the American League winner of the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 with the Kansas City Royals and went on to bat .279 with 435 home runs and 1,587 runs batted in during 20 seasons with stops in New York for both the Mets and the Yankees, in Texas for both the Rangers and the Houston Astros as well as San Francisco and St. Louis.

The nine-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner batted .307 with a 1.021 on-base plus slugging percentage in 15 postseason series featuring 16 home runs and 42 RBI in 65 games. A member of the 2017 Astros World Series title team, Beltrán hit four home runs in the 2004 NL Division Series and NL Championship Series in becoming the only player with at least four home runs in two series in the same season and one of four players, along with Giancarlo Stanton and Hall of Famers Jim Thome and Duke Snider, with multiple postseason series of at least four home runs.

Jones burst onto the major league scene in 1996 with the Atlanta Braves and hit home runs in his first two at-bats in that year’s World Series against the Yankees, for whom he would finish out his career in 2011 and ‘12. In between he also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox and slugged 434 home runs while batting .254 with 1,289 RBI and an .823 OPS.

Among the most graceful center fielders, Jones earned 10 Gold Glove Awards in leading the league in putouts six times and assists three times. In 2005, he led the National League in home runs (51) and RBI (128) and finished second to Albert Pujols for the NL Most Valuable Player Award. In 18 postseason series combined with the Braves and Yankees, Jones hit .273 with 43 runs, 10 home runs and 34 RBI in 76 games.

The only other player to gain mention on more than half the ballots was second baseman Chase Utley with 251 votes (59.1). In his 10th-and-final season on the ballot, outfielder Manny Ramírez received 165 votes (38.8). He will become eligible for the Contemporary Era ballot in the fall of 2028.

Candidates may remain on the BBWAA ballot for up to 10 years provided they are listed on at least five percent of ballots cast, with this year’s target being 22 votes. There are 13 players from this year’s ballot who will be eligible again for 2027, including one of 12 first-year candidates – pitcher Cole Hamels with 101 votes (23.8).

The Hall of Fame has 354 elected members, including 281 players, of whom 144 have come through the BBWAA ballot. The average ballot in the 2026 election contained 5.77 names, down from 6.77 last year, with 20.9 percent of the voters using all 10 slots, down from 24.9 a year ago. The total of ballots cast was 99.3-percent of the 428 ballots mailed to voters. The 11 blank ballots submitted were the most since the record 14 in 2021.

The vote: Carlos Beltrán 358 (84.2%), Andruw Jones 333 (78.4), Chase Utley 251 (59.1), Andy Pettitte 206 (48.5), Félix Hernández 196 (46.1), Álex Rodríguez 170 (40.0), Manny Ramírez 165 (38.8), Bobby Abreu 131 (30.8), Jimmy Rollins 108 (25.4), Cole Hamels 101 (23.8), Dustin Pedroia 88 (20.7), Mark Buehrle 85 (20.0), Omar Vizquel 78 (18.4), David Wright 63 (14.8), Francisco Rodríguez 50 (11.8), Torii Hunter 37 (8.7), Ryan Braun 15 (3.5), Edwin Encarnación 6 (1.4), Shin-Soo Choo 3 (0.7), Matt Kemp 2 (0.5), Hunter Pence 2 (0.5), Rick Porcello 2 (0.5), Alex Gordon 1 (0.2), Nick Markakis 1 (0.2), Gio González 0, Howie Kendrick 0, Daniel Murphy 0.