The Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2023 ballot on Monday, and the most intriguing newcomer is a former Met and Yankee whose candidacy could be tarnished by his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal at the end of his career.
Carlos Beltran was one of 14 new additions to the ballot who will join 14 holdovers for about 400 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to vote on, the results of which will be revealed on Jan. 24. Any candidate who receives 75 percent of the vote or more will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next July in Cooperstown.
Joining Beltran in their first year on the ballot are former Mets pitchers R.A. Dickey and Francisco Rodriguez; former Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury; and Huston Street, John Lackey, Bronson Arroyo, Matt Cain, Jayson Werth, Mike Napoli, Jered Weaver, J.J. Hardy, Jhonny Peralta and Andre Ethier.
They join a group of holdovers that include Scott Rolen (63.2 percent in last year’s voting), Todd Helton (52 percent), Billy Wagner (51 percent), Andruw Jones (41.4 percent), Gary Sheffield (40.6 percent), Alex Rodriguez (34.3 percent), Manny Ramirez (28.9 percent), Jeff Kent (32.7 percent), who is on the ballot for his 10th and final year, and Andy Pettitte (10.7 percent).
Last year, former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was the only player who was voted into the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA, with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling all falling short in their final year on the ballot. All three were recently named to the eight-player ballot for the Contemporary Era Committee to vote on, with those results being announced on Dec. 4.
When Beltran retired in 2017, he appeared likely to be headed for Cooperstown after a 20-year MLB career in which he was a nine-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove center fielder, batted .279 with 435 home runs, 2,725 hits, 1,587 RBIs, a .837 OPS and 312 stolen bases while accruing 70.1 Wins Above Replacement (per Baseball Reference).
But after playing his final season in 2017 for the Astros and winning his first World Series, Beltran was later the only player named in the commissioner’s report for his role in the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing scheme. MLB did not penalize him for his involvement in the scandal, but it cost him his job as manager of the Mets before he ever got to manage a game.
It remains to be seen whether Beltran’s part in the Astros’ trash-can banging scheme will affect his chances to make the Hall of Fame. He is the first player from the 2017 Astros to be up for consideration for Cooperstown, so there has not yet been a public referendum on how those players’ Hall of Fame cases will be judged.
After losing his job with the Mets in January 2020, Beltran returned to baseball this year as an analyst for Yankees games on YES Network.
Ellsbury (31.2 bWAR) played 11 seasons in the big leagues, the final four with the Yankees as part of an ill-fated seven-year, $153 million contract that was plagued by injuries.
Dickey (23.7 bWAR) had a 15-year career that was prolonged by his knuckleball, which allowed him to win the National League Cy Young award with the Mets in 2012.
Rodriguez (24.2 bWAR) spent 16 seasons as a reliever while piling up 437 saves, including three years and 83 saves for the Mets.
