Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones, both former Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners, have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Class of 2026 is now complete.
With the election of Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones on Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame now has 354 members. Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch made the announcement of the two newest members to enter the Cooperstown shrine live on MLB Network on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET.
Votes were cast by 425 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Beltran received 84.2 percent of the vote and Jones got 78.4 percent. Beltran is the sixth native of Puerto Rico to receive this honor.
Beltran’s first year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s ballot was in 2023. The former center fielder, who retired after the 2017 season with the Houston Astros, that year earned 46.5 percent of the vote. This was the fourth year for Beltran on the BBWAA ballot.
Jones, who first was eligible for the Hall of Fame vote nine years ago, played his last MLB season in 2012 with the New York Yankees. Although Jones played for five different clubs over a 17-year career in the United States (1996–2012), it is his first dozen seasons with the Atlanta Braves that he is most identified with. His 10 consecutive Rawlings Gold Gloves collected as the National League’s premiere center fielder (1998–2007) has had Jones’ excellence in fielding compared by some to Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
Mark Lemke, one of Jones’ teammates for the Braves during the outfielder’s first two seasons, offers high praise to the former center fielder’s character on and off the field.
“He’s an outstanding person,” Lemke told The Epoch Times on Tuesday. “When Andruw broke in with the Braves, he had a calm demeanor and he’s still the same person today. We first met when Andruw was 16 years old, and signed with the Braves. When he came up with the Braves, Andruw was mentioned in the same breath as the great Mickey Mantle. Andruw just might be the best center fielder ever. I know that I’ve never seen anyone better.”
His five All-Star games, leading the National League with 51 home runs in 2005, and collecting a Silver Slugger Award, add up to a highly decorated MLB career for Jones. Outside of all the Gold Gloves he won, the one achievement Jones is most associated with is his appearance in the 1996 World Series. As a 19-year-old rookie, Jones, a native of Curaçao, in Game 1 hit home runs in his first two at-bats. He is only the second player to have accomplished this.
“His defense capability was unbelievable,” former longtime Braves’ pitching coach Leo Mazzone told The Epoch Times during a phone conversation on Tuesday from his home in Georgia. “Probably the best compliment that Andruw could get came from Greg Maddux. In his rookie year, Maddux came to me and asked that I tell ”Coach Cox“ [Braves’ Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox] to play [Jones] in center field whenever I pitch.”
Mazzone went on to say that he believes during Jones’ tenure in Atlanta, his fielding symbolized greatness. Calling Jones “fun to be around,” Mazzone remembers how often the Braves’ center fielder made his pitching staff look good. Rarely giving up line drives up the middle, by intercepting them with head-first sliding catches, Mazzone recalls Andruw Jones, together with Chipper Jones, Atlanta’s third baseman for 19 seasons beginning in 1993, being “the center of our team.”
Like his fellow 2026 Hall of Fame classmate Jones, Beltran, too, is remembered for his clutch hitting and his defensive wizardry. Beltran, one of five MLB players in the history of the game to reach 500 doubles, 400 homers, and 300 steals (with an 86.4 percent success rate), was named American League Rookie of the Year while with the Kansas City Royals in 1999.
Currently employed by the New York Mets as a special assistant to the president of baseball operations, Beltran’s rise to the major leagues began as an 18-year-old in 1995. Never playing at the Triple-A level in the minors, Beltran made the jump to Kansas City after splitting the 1998 season, first, in the Class-A Carolina League, then by being promoted to Double-A Wichita in the Texas League, before getting the call-up to Kansas City.
Former New York Mets’ utility player Mike Baxter, who played against Beltran, offered congratulations to his fellow outfielder in a text to The Epoch Times.
“Carlos was a heck of a player and was highly respected among the guys in New York. He had great patience with the younger guys and loved sharing the art of hitting. Tremendous career!”
Jeff Kent, a former San Francisco Giants teammate of Beltran in 2004, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame last month as part of the Class of 2026 by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.
The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2026 Induction Ceremony will be held on Sunday, July 26, in Cooperstown on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center. The ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET.
