COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Long before Carlos Beltrán ever played a full season in the big leagues, a Kansas City Royals legend already saw his future clearly. On the night before his Hall of Fame induction, Beltrán shared a story that has stayed with him for more than two decades.
Back in 1999, when the Royals made a trip to Cooperstown, Kansas City great George Brett took it upon himself to introduce the young Beltrán to Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda — a fellow Puerto Rican legend. Brett didn’t hold back with his introduction.
“I have a baseball and I’m approaching Cepeda for him to sign my baseball, and George said, ‘Let me introduce you to the next Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico. His name is Carlos Beltrán,’” the nine-time All-Star outfielder recalled on Saturday. “And I’m going like, what is he doing? I haven’t played a game and you’re introducing me as a Hall of Famer. I don’t think that’s a good statement.”
Brett, however, stood by his words. “George said, ‘Well, Carlos, everything is possible in life. If you play hard and if you continue to play good and if you continue to develop yourself, this is an opportunity and this is a chance that you could be here.’”
Twenty-seven years after that conversation, Brett’s bold prediction became reality. On Sunday, Beltrán was officially inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame alongside Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent — mirroring the 1999 class that included Brett and Cepeda themselves.
“Never went through my mind,” Beltrán admitted. “But I did imagine myself as a baseball player. I did imagine myself as a professional baseball player. I come from a very humble family. I got to see my parents doing a lot of work to push us forward.”
Beltrán earned AL Rookie of the Year honors with Kansas City in 1999 and went on to spend 20 years in the major leagues, including seven seasons each with the Royals and the New York Mets. He earned his spot in Cooperstown in his fourth year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, collecting 84.2% of the vote.
Joining Beltrán from the BBWAA ballot is former Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones, who cleared the 75% threshold with 78.4% of the vote in his ninth year of eligibility. It was a remarkable turnaround for Jones, who nearly fell off the ballot entirely after his 2018 debut when he received just 7.3% — barely above the 5% minimum needed to remain eligible.
Jones’ path to Cooperstown was built largely on his extraordinary glove work in center field, where he captured 10 consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 1998 through 2007. And like Beltrán, his most cherished baseball memory dates back to his earliest days in the sport.
“Just getting that call to make it to the major leagues in ’96. Getting on that plane, flying into Philadelphia and walking into the clubhouse and seeing all these guys that you watch on TV who won the World Series in ’95 and trying to win another one in ’96,” Jones said. “That was the best moment of my career, to be honest with you.”
While Beltrán and Jones both eventually received the call through the traditional writers’ ballot, Jeff Kent’s road looked very different. The five-time All-Star second baseman and 2000 NL Most Valuable Player exhausted all 10 years of his BBWAA eligibility without ever reaching the required 75% threshold. He dropped off the ballot in 2023.
Kent finally received his Hall of Fame honor in December 2025, when the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee — a much smaller group of voters — elected him to Cooperstown.
Despite the unconventional route, Kent says conversations with fellow Hall of Famers this weekend helped him fully embrace his place among the greats.
“I’m walking around, talking to guys and I’m getting hugs and I’m getting, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m getting, ‘You should have been in a long time ago,’ and all those things,” Kent said. “And I’m seeing in their eyes that they’re not saying it just to be nice to me because they want something from me, or they’re just trying to be nice because the cameras are on and it was real. And that’s probably the first time I was able to relax.”
