Two former baseball greats joined the ranks of the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Jan. 20, as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s 2026 balloting results were revealed on MLB Network.
Center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones achieved immortality that day. Based on their statistics, the call to the Hall was long overdue for both.
Beltrán posted 70 wins above replacement during his career. He was a nine-time All-Star and won the 2017 World Series with the Houston Astros.
Jones was one of the greatest defensive center fielders of all time, winning ten straight Gold Glove Awards. Both players hit more than 400 home runs, too.
But outside the impressive raw stats, the two are no strangers to controversy in their careers.
That 2017 Astros World Series run was marred by a highly-publicized sign-stealing scandal in which the team illegally relayed opposing pitchers’ and catchers’ signs electronically, allowing Houston hitters to know what pitch was coming before it was thrown.
According to The Athletic, Beltrán was not just a participant in the rule breaking, but a “driving force” behind it. The article claimed that Beltrán used his clubhouse sway and veteran status to pressure younger players into cheating during the title run.
After being hired as the manager of the New York Mets, Beltrán denied having had any involvement in the scandal. The Mets let him go anyway, before he had managed a game.
Jones was arrested in 2012 on domestic violence charges after his wife alleged he drunkenly put his hands around her neck and threatened to kill her.
It’s sometimes necessary to separate the art from the artist. But the BBWAA allowing these athletes into the Hall despite their publicized moral failings exposes hypocrisy up and down the ballot.
The BBWAA has long denied the main cast of baseball’s “steroid era” – Álex Rodríguez, Manny Ramírez, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and all-time home-run king Barry Bonds – entry into the Hall, claiming their use of performance-enhancing drugs gave them an unfair advantage.
Why is that so much worse than what Beltrán did? Why is one method of cheating unforgivable, while voters look away from the other? I would argue Beltrán’s actions are worse, given that he pressured others to skirt the rules of the game.
Baseball’s all-time homer king, and Sosa and McGwire’s legendary 1998 home-run chase that electrified the baseball world, are not immortalized. The voters say they are less worthy than the likes of Ray Schalk and Rabbit Maranville. Who are they? Exactly.
The Hall of Fame chances of Omar Vizquel, one of the greatest defensive shortstops of all time, crashed after Vizquel’s wife accused him of domestic violence. The next year, a lawsuit by an autistic former batboy of Vizquel’s minor-league team shocked the world when the plaintiff alleged Vizquel had sexually harassed him.
I’m all for keeping Vizquel out of the Hall, but why should voters dismiss one case of abuse and not the other?
To see another example of voters picking and choosing, look no further than Boston’s own David Ortiz. The legendary designated hitter and backbone of three of Boston’s World Series titles tested positive for steroid use in 2003.
Like many, I love Big Papi. But make no mistake, he was elected because he is popular and has good relationships with members of the media – unlike, for example, Bonds and Rodriguez.
Then there’s Harold Baines, who – despite posting only 38.8 wins above replacement and an .820 on-base plus slugging as a primary designated hitter – was elected to the Hall in 2019 by a committee of his friends and colleagues.
Although it consisted of different voters, the same committee in 2025 denied Bonds and Clemens the nod.
Bill Mazeroski, with his 36.5 wins above replacement, was elected in 2001, largely for his legendary home run in the 1960 World Series.
I do not believe the Hall of Fame should be the Hall of Statistics, and in many cases, neither do the voters. If we are voting players in based on morality, popularity, and historicity, I would hope that would cut both ways.
“34 years! 119 games! It’s finally happened! A perfect game by a Seattle Mariner! It was done by the King!”
What moments can you think of in modern MLB history that are more Hall of Fame worthy?
“King” Félix Hernández – six-time All-Star, Cy Young winner, generator of 49.8 wins above replacement and the only pitcher in MLB history to toss a perfect game, immaculate inning and four-strikeout inning – finished with only 46.1% of the vote on the 2026 ballot, far short of the requisite 75%.
Hernández had a spotless off-the-field record, being nominated for a Roberto Clemente Award nomination in 2014 for serving as a spokesperson for the Mariners’ “Refuse To Abuse” anti-domestic violence campaign.
David “Captain America” Wright, the universally-beloved Mets and World Baseball Classic legend, was a seven-time All-Star who posted a career .867 on-base plus slugging and 49.1 wins above replacement.
Wright was devoted to charity work, starting the David Wright Foundation to fund multiple sclerosis research at 23 years old.
He received a paltry 14.8% of the vote, finishing behind Vizquel’s 18.4%.
The Hall of Fame should not be the Hall of wins above replacement either, but Vizquel posted a lower career mark – 45.6 – than did Wright. Yet the abuser is closer than Captain America is to the Hall of Fame.
Some players – Beltrán and Jones – get in based on statistics, with voters looking past their respective transgressions.
Some – Bonds, Rodriguez and the steroid users – do not.
Players like Ortiz, Baines and Mazeroski, who based on the standards to which others are held should not be in the Hall of Fame, are.
Yet Hernández and Wright languish outside Cooperstown.
Make it make sense, Hall voters.