While voters clearly held Beltrán’s misdeeds against him initially, enough eventually decided that his involvement in the 2017 scandal didn't warrant lifelong banishment from the Hall.
For some transgressions, time alone is enough.
Such is the case for Carlos Beltrán, who was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Beltran, one of the greatest switch-hitting outfielders of all time, received 84.2% of the vote via the Baseball Writers Association of America, well over the 75% needed for induction. He will be inducted this summer alongside center fielder Andruw Jones and second baseman Jeff Kent, who was granted entry by the 16-member Era Committee in December.
On sporting merit, Beltrán’s inclusion is a no-brainer. His statistical résumé is robust, inarguable. A dual-threat in his younger years, Beltrán’s power-speed combo helped him become one of just five players in MLB history with 400 home runs and 300 steals. Two of his companions in that group, Willie Mays and Andre Dawson, are Hall of Famers. The others, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, would be if not for their histories with steroids.
Beltrán too had a run-in with baseball’s rules, as the Puerto Rican’s central role in the 2017 Houston Astros can-banging, sign-stealing scandal long muddied the waters of his Cooperstown candidacy. When he first appeared on the ballot in 2023, Beltrán garnered 46.5% of the vote, a sign that the voting base had yet to forgive his late-career malfeasance. But unlike those tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, Beltrán was able to gradually shed the stench and ascend the mountain.
The nine-time All Star was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the second round of the 1995 amateur draft out of Fernando Callejo High School in Puerto Rico. Originally a right-handed hitter, Beltrán learned how to hit lefty one season in the minors, a decision that changed the course of his life. He debuted with the Royals late in 1998 and impressed enough the following spring training to win the starting center-field job by Opening Day. That year, he hit .293, launched 22 homers and swiped 27 bags, earning him the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
After an injury-marred sophomore season, Beltrán solidified himself as a young star on some very lackluster early-2000s Royals clubs. As he grew into more strength in his mid-20s, the power numbers ticked up, leading to a ninth-place MVP finish in 2003. In 2004, Beltrán nearly went 40/40, finishing just two long balls short in a year that also saw him get dealt to the World Series-bound Astros. After a strong summer, Beltrán then delivered an autumn for the ages, going 20-for-46 with 8 homers and 6 steals in 12 playoff games with Houston.
He parlayed that into a seven-year, $119 million deal with the New York Mets, a franchise-record contract at the time. Beltrán’s time in Queens was uneven but undeniably productive. After a relatively lackluster first season that drew ire from Mets fans, he exploded for a career-best campaign (8.2 bWAR, 41 homers, .982 OPS) in 2006. Unfortunately, that postseason ended in woe, with Beltrán famously caught looking at the plate in the ninth inning of NLCS Game 7 against the Cardinals.
That would prove to be his last postseason plate appearance as a Met.
Despite battling through injuries, Beltrán posted exactly 20 bWAR during his last five years in New York, with an adjusted OPS 34% better than league average. When he played, he almost always hit. But with his contract set to expire at the end of 2011, the Mets traded him at the deadline to San Francisco for a young pitching prospect named Zack Wheeler. Beltrán, then a 35-year-old vet, signed with the Cardinals that winter and became a key part of two consecutive St. Louis playoff teams. The ultimate goal continued to elude him, however, as the Cards lost to the Red Sox in the 2013 Fall Classic.
From there, Beltrán moved on to the Bronx, where he spent two-and-a-half solid, unremarkable seasons with the Yankees before a 2016 deadline deal sent him to the Rangers for a few months.
At this point, Beltrán was one of the most respected characters in the game, a beloved veteran aging gracefully toward retirement. So just before his 40th birthday, Beltrán latched on with a young, upstart Houston Astros team looking for an experienced presence. On the field, he failed to make an impact in what turned out to be his final season, with a .666 OPS, 14 homers and -0.8 bWAR. Beyond the lines, though, Beltrán proved to be quite valuable as the club stampeded to the first title in franchise history. It seemed like a storybook ending, a well-deserved first ring.
But a few years down the road, the truth spoiled the party.
In the fall of 2019, The Athletic published a story about how the 2017 Astros had used a video camera to steal opponents’ pitch signs in real time, relaying the information to batters via a trash can in the dugout tunnel. That bombshell and subsequent reporting framed Beltrán, who had recently been named manager of the Mets, as a ringleader of the rule-breaking operation. The Athletic reported that at one point during the season, when catcher Brian McCann approached Beltrán about calling off the scheme, Beltrán refused.
“He disregarded it and steamrolled everybody,” a member of the 2017 club told The Athletic. “Where do you go if you’re a young, impressionable player with the Astros and this guy says, ‘We’re doing this’? What do you do?”
While no players involved in the can-banging were suspended by the league, Beltrán was swiftly relieved of his duties as Mets skipper, without his having managed a game. He became persona non grata in the blink of an eye. It was a shocking turn of events, one that threatened to dampen his Hall of Fame chances.
And while voters clearly held Beltrán’s misdeeds against him initially, enough of them eventually decided that his involvement in the 2017 scandal was not, on its own, a transgression that warranted lifelong banishment from the Hall. It’s a fascinating contrast to alleged PED users such as Bonds, Rodriguez and Roger Clemens, who have failed to make significant headway toward Cooperstown.
The difference, most likely, is that Beltrán’s sign-stealing malfeasance does not cast a pall over his on-field accomplishments. Can-banging in 2017 did not help him blast 421 career home runs between 1998 and 2016. In other words, Beltrán’s conduct was dirty, but his statistical résumé remains clean. The same cannot be said for steroid users, whose palmarès are colored by their use of the juice.
Beltrán’s relative waltz to enshrinement might also offer a preview of how voters will treat other 2017 Astros when they join the ballot in future years. José Altuve — who was vehemently opposed to the scheme and refused to participate but has received more vitriol over the saga than any other Astro — has Cooperstown-worthy numbers. Alex Bregman, too, has a chance. George Springer, if he continues hitting like he did in 2025, has an outside shot. At this point, we can deduce that those characters likely won’t be barred inclusion based on what happened in 2017.
Whether you see Beltrán as a scapegoat or a villain depends on your point of view. He was clearly a mastermind of the sign-stealing scheme, but, like Altuve, he probably received an inordinate amount of flack. With his induction in the Hall of Fame, the stain is all but cleaned from Beltrán’s legacy. He was forced to wait longer than he otherwise would have, but in the end, voters were willing to forgive.
Category: General Sports
