The wait is over for two of the best outfielders of the 2000s: Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Beltran and Jones were announced as the only two players elected to this year’s class by the BBWAA during Tuesday’s announcement, and they will join Jeff Kent, who was voted in by the Veterans Committee in December, for induction this July in Cooperstown.
Beltrán got 358 votes, good for 84.2 percent, to earn induction in his fourth year on the ballot, while Jones, in his ninth year, got 78.4 percent (333 votes).
The duo, who both spent part of their careers in New York, were born just one day apart in 1977, and burst onto the MLB scene within two seasons of each other.
Jones debuted as a 19-year-old with the Braves in 1996 and homered in each of his first two at-bats against the Yankees in the World Series that year, a huge start to a career where he slashed .254/.337/.486 with 434 homers, 1,289 RBI, 1,933 hits, and 383 doubles in 2,196 games.
He finished his career in New York, playing 171 games with the 2011-12 Yankees, after stops with the Dodgers, Rangers, and White Sox, and finished with 10 Gold Gloves, five All-Star nods, an MVP runner-up finish in 2005, and World Series appearances in 1996 and 1999.
Beltran came up in 1998 and burst on the scene in 1999, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award to kickstart a 20-year career where he slashed .279/.350/.486 with 435 homers, 1,587 RBI, 2,725 hits, and 565 doubles in 2,586 games.
The nine-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner had two stints in New York, playing for the Mets from 2005-11 and the Yankees from 2014-16, but saw his only two World Series just after both stints – 2013 with St. Louis, and a ring with the 2017 Astros.
Chase Utley was third on the ballot with 251 votes (59.1 percent), and was the only one to receive more than half the vote. Among New York notables, Andy Pettitte was fourth with 206 votes (48.5 percent) in his eighth year on the ballot, and Alex Rodriguez was sixth with 170 votes (40 percent) in his fifth year.
Bobby Abreu, David Wright, and Francisco Rodriguez all also received enough votes to remain on the ballot in 2026-27, joining Utley, Pettitte, A-Rod, and seven others who will return.
It was a bad year, however, for first-time eligible players, as Cole Hamels (101 votes, 23.8 percent) was the only one of the 13 newcomers to receive enough votes to remain on the ballot. The other 12, a group that included Edwin Encarnacion and Daniel Murphy, did not receive five percent of the vote, and will be dropped from the ballot.
Manny Ramirez, who received 38.8 percent in his tenth and final year, will also drop off the ballot.