Carlos Beltran, a five-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove outfielder for the Mets, was officially elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
The switch-hitting slugger from Puerto Rico finished first in the balloting with 358 votes from the Baseball Writers of America, good for 84 percent of the voters in his fourth season on the ballot. Induction requires at least 75 percent.
Outfielder Andruw Jones, a longtime Atlanta Braves star with 10 Gold Gloves and 78 percent of the voters, will join Beltran in Cooperstown this coming July, as will ex-Mets second baseman Jeff Kent, who was elected in December by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.
Former Mets third baseman and captain David Wright was named on 14.8 percent of the ballots in his third year of eligibility, which lasts for 15 years as long as a player is named on at least 5 percent of the ballots.
Former Mets second baseman and postseason hero Daniel Murphy garnered no votes in his first year of eligibility.
Beltran, the American League Rookie of the Year with the Kansas City Royals in 1999, was an established star when he signed a seven-year free agent deal with the Mets after the 2004 season.
His 149 home runs rank seventh in the Amazin’s history. He remains among the club’s all-time top 10 in career runs batted in, doubles, bating average, runs and walks.
He was an All-Star with the Mets in 2005-07, 2009 and 2010. His three consecutive Gold Gloves came in 2006-08. His 41 home runs in 2006 tied what then was the club record set by Todd Hundley.
Though a player who excelled in the postseason with a .307 batting average and 16 home runs, Beltran still is remembered by many Mets fans for making the final out in game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals with his bat on his shoulder, striking out looking with the bases loaded.
Beltran was traded to the San Francisco Giants in the middle of the 2011 season for a promising minor league pitcher named Zack Wheeler, who could never stay healthy in Flushing but has been a front-line starter with the Philadelphia Phillies since 2020.
Beltran played on his only World Series champion team in 2017, his final season, with the Houston Astros. But the title was tainted due to a cheating scandal that came out during the 2019 season, and Beltran was named in the investigation. He had signed a contract to manage the Mets for 2020 but resigned before the season. He is now a member of the Mets’ front office.
Like Jones, Beltran had a stint with the New York Yankees. He also played for the Cardinals and Texas Rangers. He hit .279 in his career with 435 home runs and a total of nine All-Star selections.