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Carlos Beltrán Highlights 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot Additions

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Carlos Beltrán Highlights 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot Additions

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame introduced its 2022 class on Tuesday night with David Ortiz earning a first-ballot entry to Cooperstown. Six other gentlemen–Gil Hodges, Buck O’Neil, and Jim Kaat included–were inducted by the Golden Days Era Committee and Early Baseball Era Committee, as well.

As we look to the 2023 ballot, one incoming name stands out: Carlos Beltrán.

Beltrán is far and away the most intriguing name who will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. Other players who may appear on the ballot–which ranges from 25 to 40 names–given they are now eligible include John Lackey, Matt Cain, Francisco Rodriguez, Jered Weaver, R.A. Dickey, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jayson Werth.

Over his career 20-year career, seven of which he spent with the Mets (during his peak, no less), Beltrán amassed 70.1 bWAR and 67.9 fWAR. That all came from 435 home runs and nearly 1,600 RBI while hitting from both sides of the plate.

After six-and-a-half seasons with the Royals, Beltrán was traded and had a historic 2003 postseason with the Houston Astros, when he mashed eight homers in 12 games (two series). He parlayed that into a massive free-agent contract with the Mets, where he played six-and-a-half seasons as arguably the Mets’ best player while he was there. (He and David Wright were an incredible one-two punch.) With the Mets, he had four All-Star nods, three Gold Glove awards, and a Top 5 MVP finish in 2005 with 41 homers and a .982 OPS.

He was traded to the San Francisco Giants and spent the next six seasons bouncing around contending teams: the Cardinals, Yankees, Rangers, and, ultimately, the Astros. While in Houston for his second stint, he allegedly was the ring leader for the team’s sign-stealing scandal in 2017 when the Astros won the World Series. It was Beltrán’s only World Series title, and he ended his career after that. (We don’t need to go too long on this right now. You’re going to read plenty about this as voting for the 2023 class gets underway, no doubt.)

Beltrán’s seven-year WAR peak was 44.4, which puts him in the realm of the likes of Todd Helton and Scott Rolen, and his JAWS number – a number that averages a player’s seven-year peak with their career WAR and compares it with their position – is 57.3. That puts him at the ninth-highest among center fielders. All eight above him are in the Hall of Fame, and a baker’s dozen sporadically below him are in the Hall, too, according to Baseball-Reference.

In total, the Hall of Fame ballot is losing 16 names.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa all expired their 10-year eligibility on the ballot and will have to rely on a committee inducting them into the Hall. (Next year’s voting committee is actually the Today’s Game committee, which debates players who played after 1987, so all four could be voted on next year.)

Eleven more fell off the ballot due to not hitting the 5 percent threshold needed to stay on the ballot. Those are:

Players like Teixeira and Nathan likely fell victim to the rule where writers can only vote for a maximum of 10 players. On a loaded ballot like this one, they may have been a writer’s 11th or 12th choice, but they couldn’t vote for them. On a more open 2023 ballots, which sees the lack of juggernauts like Ortiz, Bonds, and Clemens, they likely would have easily cleared 5 percent.

Then, of course, Ortiz is coming off the ballot due to his induction.

That leaves a grouping of 14 players who will be on the 2023 ballot by receiving at least 5 percent of the vote this year, plus at least another half-a-dozen first-time eligible names will appear on the ballot. The 2023 ballot will be finalized and shared with the public around the end of November.

Beltrán is the obvious addition to the ballot. Though others will get their first shot, it wouldn’t be surprising if no player but Beltrán made it past one year, especially if more writers are now inclined to vote for down-ballot players like Jeff Kent, Billy Wagner and Andrew Jones.

Beltrán almost certainly won’t get in on his first ballot with the strong group of borderline Hall of Famers left on the ballot (Helton, Rolen, Wagner, etc.), along with *gulps* Alex Rodriguez. The debate around Beltrán will revolve around two things: 1) if voters believe that Beltrán deserves a spot in Cooperstown straight-up based on his production, and 2) if his involvement in the sign-stealing scandal from 2017–his last year in the league–will sway voters to keep him out entirely, even if his play is clear to the voter that he should get in.

Those two debates will weave among each other over the next year or so before ballots are due on the last day of 2022. If and when he does get in, though, there’s one guarantee: it won’t be in an Astros cap.

Carlos Beltrán Highlights 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot Additions

The post Carlos Beltrán Highlights 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot Additions first appeared on Metsmerized Online.

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