Carlos Beltran Got the Hall Call. The Comment Section Is Predictable

Carlos Beltrán’s Hall of Fame call finally came, and yes, the 2017 Astros scandal still follows him into Cooperstown.

He made a career out of doing everything, hitting for power, stealing bases, winning Gold Gloves, and showing up in October. Yet his legacy also carries a footnote that baseball still argues about.

Carlos Beltrán is officially a Hall of Famer, on his fourth try

Carlos Beltrán earned election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with 84.2% of the 425 Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballots, according to the Hall of Fame. He cleared the 75% threshold “easily” in his fourth year of eligibility.

A quote that says it all

On the Hall of Fame conference call, Beltrán said, “There’s no doubt that today, my life really has changed,” and connected the moment to Puerto Rico, his family, and “our project in Puerto Rico promoting baseball, the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy,” according to the Hall of Fame’s write-up.

The resume was always Cooperstown-level

Beltrán finished with 2,725 hits, 435 home runs, 312 stolen bases, nine All-Star selections, three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and the 2013 Roberto Clemente Award. ESPN also noted he belongs to a rare statistical club: 2,700 hits, 400 homers, 1,500 runs, and 300 steals.

Carlos Beltrán and the scandal he cannot outrun

The tension in his case has always come back to Houston’s 2017 sign-stealing scandal. PBS reported that MLB’s findings described a scheme that used a center-field camera and a video room to decode signs, with signals passed to the dugout and then relayed to the batter. The Hall of Fame story also refers to “ups and downs of baseball” when Beltrán reflected on finally getting in.

The Mets’ job that disappeared before it even started

After the scandal went public, Beltrán lost the Mets manager role before managing a game, according to PBS. That exit shaped how voters and fans talked about his candidacy for years.

Everything goes according to schedule in Cooperstown

The Hall of Fame reported that Beltrán will join Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent as the Class of 2026, with induction set for Sunday, July 26, in Cooperstown. And while the debate will continue, his plaque will sit in the gallery anyway, which is the kind of ending baseball rarely gives anyone.