At least one former New York Mets player will be enshrined in Cooperstown next summer.

On Sunday evening, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee revealed that former Mets second baseman Jeff Kent was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He received 14 of a possible 16 votes, making him the only one of the eight candidates considered to cross the 75% threshold needed for induction.

Headed to the Hall!

Jeff Kent has been elected to the @baseballhall 👏 pic.twitter.com/l1a1MJ9RdH

— New York Mets (@Mets) December 8, 2025

Kent, 57, previously had 10 tries on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot but never received more than 50% of the vote. He earned another chance through the Era Committee, the Hall of Fame’s process for considering candidates who have exhausted their BBWAA eligibility.

Before breaking out with the San Francisco Giants in the late 1990s, Kent spent parts of five seasons in Queens. He hit .279/.327/.453 with 67 home runs and 267 RBIs in 498 games with the Mets before being dealt to Cleveland ahead of the 1996 trade deadline.

Over the next six seasons in San Francisco, Kent posted a .297/.368/.535 slash line with 175 home runs and 689 RBIs. The righty slugger memorably won the NL MVP Award in 2000, when he homered 33 times and drove in 125 runs with a .334/.424/.596 slash line.

17 seasons in Major League Baseball with 6 different ball clubs, and more home runs than any second baseman in MLB history. Tonight, Jeff Kent achieves baseball immortality. pic.twitter.com/GE5jZIpRzb

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) December 8, 2025

Kent ranks first among second basemen with 377 career home runs, second in slugging percentage (.500), and third in RBIs (1,518). He was a five-time All-Star and earned four Silver Slugger awards over 17 seasons.

Of the other seven candidates under consideration, former Met Carlos Delgado came closest to joining Kent in Cooperstown, falling three votes shy of election. Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly each received six votes, while Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela each received fewer than five.

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Under current rules, Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield, and Valenzuela will not be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration again until the 2031-32 cycle. Last year, the Classic Baseball Era Committee elected sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker from an eight-player ballot.

The remainder of the 2026 Hall of Fame class will be unveiled at 6 p.m. ET Jan. 20, when the results of the writers’ ballots are announced live on MLB Network. Former Mets Carlos Beltrán, David Wright, and Daniel Murphy are among those on the BBWAA ballot this year.

Any players elected on that date will join Kent and be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 26 in Cooperstown.

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