Good morning, I\u2019m Dan Gartland. A quick programming note: I\u2019ll be on a reporting trip for the next few days. Tyler Lauletta will have you covered with the newsletter until I get back on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s SI:AM:\u00a0 If you\u2019re reading this on SI.com, click here to subscribe<\/a> and receive SI:AM directly in your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n Two new Hall of Famers<\/p>\n Two of the greatest center fielders of their generation will enter the Baseball Hall of Fame together next summer<\/a>. Carlos Beltr\u00e1n and Andruw Jones both crossed the 75% vote threshold necessary for induction when the Hall announced this year\u2019s Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America voting results on Tuesday evening. (Beltr\u00e1n appeared on 84.2% of ballots, and Jones appeared on 78.4%.) They will be inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, alongside Jeff Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything you need to know about Jones and Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s path to the Hall, who missed the cut and who could be up next.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s later-than-expected Cooperstown call<\/p>\n Beltr\u00e1n was considered a lock for the Hall of Fame when he retired in 2017 and likely would have gotten in on the first ballot under normal circumstances. He was a nine-time All-Star, won three Gold Gloves and hit 435 career homers. He\u2019s one of only five players in MLB history<\/a> with at least 500 doubles, 400 homers and 300 steals. (Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are the others.)<\/p>\n Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s candidacy suffered as a result of his involvement in the infamous Astros sign-stealing scandal, though. Beltr\u00e1n spent the final year of his career in Houston in 2017, when the Astros were later found to have cheated by relaying opposing catchers\u2019 signals to batters at the plate. Beltr\u00e1n had helped devise the scheme<\/a>, which violated MLB rules on using electronic means to detect opposing teams\u2019 signs. Beltr\u00e1n had been hired by the Mets to be their new manager two weeks before The Athletic broke the news of the Astros\u2019 cheating in November 2019. On January 16, 2020, Beltr\u00e1n and the Mets announced they\u2019d reached a mutual decision that he would not manage the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n The scandal harmed Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s standing with the voters. He received only 46.5% of the vote in his first year on the ballot in 2023 and crept up to 57.1% the following year. He fell just short last year, with 70.3%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beltr\u00e1n will be the fifth player born in Puerto Rico inducted into the Hall, joining Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, and Iv\u00e1n Rodriguez.\u00a0<\/p>\n Voters warm to Jones<\/p>\n While Beltr\u00e1n seemed destined to eventually reach the Hall, Jones very nearly missed his window to get elected by the writers. Support for him was minimal when he first appeared on the ballot in 2018. He received just 7.3% of the vote, clearing the 5% threshold necessary for inclusion on the following year\u2019s ballot by just 10 votes. It was a similar story in \u201919, when he appeared on 7.5% of ballots.\u00a0<\/p>\n But support for Jones\u2019s candidacy grew steadily over the years. He came within striking distance of election last year at 66.2% before finally getting over the hump this year, his second-to-last year on the ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s Hall of Fame case was an interesting one. Over a nine-year period from 1998 to 2006, he was one of the best players in the game\u2014an all-time great fielder at perhaps the hardest defensive position, and an elite hitter. He hit 319 home runs over that span, the eighth most in the majors<\/a> (including an MLB-best 51 in \u201905), all while making highlight-worthy defensive plays<\/a> on a nightly basis. But Jones experienced a rapid and significant decline at the end of his career. He had forgettable stints with the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Yankees, posting a lousy .214\/.314\/.420 slash line over the final six years of his career while also playing average-at-best corner outfield defense. He was out of the majors before he turned 36 and finished his career with two seasons in Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the end, voters decided that Jones\u2019s incredible peak made him worthy of inclusion in the Hall. He\u2019ll be the first player from Cura\u00e7ao to be inducted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Who missed the cut<\/p>\n The player who came closest to being inducted was Chase Utley with 59.1% of the vote (68 votes shy). Andy Pettitte was next with 48.5%, followed by F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez (46.1%) and Alex Rodriguez (40%). Manny Ram\u00edrez got 38.8% in his 10th and final year on the ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Utley, like Jones, will rely on a torrid peak to make his Hall of Fame case. Between 2005 and \u201910, he was one of the best hitters in the majors\u2014rare for a guy who played second base. But his career counting stats, which Hall voters tend to put stock in, are lacking. He had just 1,885 career hits and 259 homers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pettitte and Hern\u00e1ndez both saw significant jumps in support that could bode well for their chances of being inducted. Pettitte appeared on nearly twice as many ballots this year, while Hern\u00e1ndez landed on 46.1% of ballots, up from 20.6% last year. Pettitte will have two more chances to get in via BBWAA voting, while Hern\u00e1ndez was only in his second year on the ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n First-year players<\/p>\n Cole Hamels<\/a> was the only player appearing on the ballot for the first time who will return in 2027. He got 23.8% of the vote. Others like Ryan Braun (3.5%), Edwin Encarnaci\u00f3n (1.4%) and Hunter Pence (0.5%) didn\u2019t receive enough support to appear on the ballot next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next year\u2019s newcomers<\/p>\n The list of players eligible to appear on the ballot<\/a> for the first time next year isn\u2019t all that impressive. Buster Posey is the only player with a real chance to eventually be inducted. Other notable players who will be eligible include Jon Lester, Brett Gardner, Ryan Zimmerman and Kyle Seager, but they don\u2019t have Cooperstown-worthy r\u00e9sum\u00e9s.\u00a0<\/p>\n The best of Sports IllustratedHere\u2019s who Tom Verducci voted for on his Hall of Fame ballot<\/a>.\u00a0 Albert Breer\u2019s Tuesday notes column leads off with some intel on how Robert Saleh landed the Titans job<\/a>.\u00a0 Conor Orr offers his predictions for who will fill the six remaining open NFL head coaching positions<\/a>.\u00a0Bryan Fischer wonders how the rest of college football will respond to Indiana\u2019s shocking turnaround<\/a>.\u00a0 Chris Mannix looks at how Jimmy Butler\u2019s season-ending injury could impact Jonathan Kuminga\u2019s standoff with the Warriors<\/a>.\u00a0 Here are James Cormack\u2019s predictions for all nine of today\u2019s UEFA Champions League matches<\/a>.The top five\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 things I saw last night:\u00a0
\u26be Hall of Fame voting results<\/a>
\ud83d\udcdd How Verducci voted<\/a>
\ud83c\udfc8 Remaining NFL coaching vacancies<\/a><\/p>\n
5. Cole Caufield\u2019s game-winning one-timer<\/a> for the Canadiens against the Wild with just 15 seconds left.\u00a0
4. A powerful dunk at a critical moment by LeBron James<\/a>.\u00a0
3. Victor Wembanyama\u2019s drive and dunk<\/a> that made elite defender Clint Capela look like a chump.\u00a0
2. Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry\u2019s incredible glove save<\/a>.
1. Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe\u2019s absurd block on an alley-oop attempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, I\u2019m Dan Gartland. A quick programming note: I\u2019ll be on a reporting trip for the next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-428132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}