Carlos Beltran, the Baseball Hall of Fame and another ballot conundrum
Carlos Beltran of the Houston Astros during the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium. Credit: Getty Images
It’s the dawn of the post-Bonds/Clemens ballot for baseball’s Hall of Fame, and I for one am feeling somewhat rudderless. Those two legendary players had teamed up to be my North Star for the past decade, the annual no-brainer checkmarks on a page mostly stacked with puzzling boxes. And if they couldn’t make it past the Cooperstown gatekeepers in 10 tries with the BBWAA electorate — it’s now up to 11, counting this year’s Contemporary Era committee — then where does anyone put the bar going forward?
The answer, to borrow another sports metaphor, has to do with the constantly moving goalposts. Some voters continue to reevaluate their own process, whether it’s determining the proper length of a PED user’s stay in purgatory or merely judging a player in the musical chairs competition for one of only 10 available spots on that year’s ballot.
Personally, I’ve tried to be fairly consistent when it comes to those stained by steroids. If Major League Baseball chose to suspend/penalize a player for violating the PED policy, either with a positive test (Manny Ramirez) or a damning paper trail (Alex Rodriguez), then I would consider them disqualified. That never happened with seven-time MVP Barry Bonds or seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, so if MLB was fine keeping them eligible, I certainly had no problem with doing the same on my ballot.
And yet, after navigating the PED minefield for more than a decade or so, a new conundrum arose this year: the debut of Carlos Beltran.
Statistically speaking, Beltran belongs in the Hall of Fame. He’s a nine-time All-Star. His 435 home runs place him fifth among centerfielders (Willie Mays is first with 660), and only Tris Speaker (792) and Ty Cobb (724) have eclipsed his 565 doubles. That Adam Wainwright curveball aside, Beltran was a standout postseason performer, hitting .307 with 16 homers, 14 RBIs and a 1.021 OPS in 65 postseason games.
Beltran finally got his World Series ring in 2017 with the Astros at the end of his 20-year career, and therein lies the problem. Two years after that triumphant moment, it came to light that the Astros used TV cameras and a trash can to engineer a very illegal sign-stealing operation during that championship run, and Beltran was singled out by MLB as one of the ringleaders along with good friend Alex Cora.
Everyone knows the details by now. No need to rehash them here. But again, as with the PED discussion, I’m more interested in MLB’s choice of disciplinary action.
Officially, only three people were suspended: general manager Jeff Luhnow, manager AJ Hinch and Cora, who was the Astros’ bench coach at the time. The only player named by MLB was Beltran; he was retiring and commissioner Rob Manfred had otherwise cut a deal with the union to grant amnesty to the active members of the roster.
While Beltran was not disciplined by MLB, being named was enough, and the Mets really had no choice but to fire him after only 77 days and zero games as manager. That has turned out to be among the most severe penalties stemming from the scandal. Cora sat out only one season before returning to manage the Red Sox in 2021 and Hinch was hired to manage the Tigers the same year.
As for Beltran, he’s made it as far as the YES broadcast booth but to this point has declined any opportunities to rejoin a team for an on-field role.
Should Beltran’s punishment now extend to Cooperstown? I say no, considering that I’ve included him on my ballot this year along with five holdovers: Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Todd Helton, Scott Rolen and Gary Sheffield.
Maybe Beltran, given his extraordinary baseball IQ, indeed was the mastermind behind the Astros’ sign-stealing plot. But he had plenty of co-conspirators, and none of the players who benefited from the illicit behavior were penalized for it. The Astros got to keep their Commissioner’s Trophy along with the riches gained by the title, so where was the justice in this case?
For that reason, I’m not going to play Cooperstown cop for Beltran. His career numbers don’t carry any PED asterisk, so we’ll consider those valid, and that resume is enough.
As for the “character” and “integrity” clauses written into the Hall of Fame’s voter guidelines, so much of sports — from college to the pros — is governed by twisted logic these days, and those lines get blurrier by the minute. While I agree that Beltran’s behavior with the 2017 Astros doesn’t pass that test, I’d also argue that he’s done his time and doesn’t deserve to be cast out for baseball eternity.
For now, it looks as if Beltran won’t make the cut in his first year on the ballot. According to Ryan Thibodaux, who compiles ballots made public before the Hall of Fame announcement, which will take place Tuesday, Beltran was sitting at 56.4% — well short of the 75% required for induction. But he’s doing much better than Rodriguez (41.8%) and Ramirez (39.4%), so plenty more voters evidently don’t consider Beltran’s crime quite as damning as chronic PED usage.
Whether the Astros scandal ultimately keeps Beltran out of the Hall won’t be known for a while. But his appearance on the ballot likely is prompting everyone to recalibrate their Cooperstown compass again.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
