Baseball Hall of Fame: Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, Todd Helton elected

The National Baseball Hall of Fame grew by three members on Tuesday, as slugging third baseman Adrian Beltre, catcher Joe Mauer and Todd Helton were elected.

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Beltre and Mauer were elected in their first year of eligibility. Helton, who spent his entire career with the Colorado Rockies, was elected in his sixth year of eligibility.

The new inductees join former manager Jim Leyland, who was elected to the Hall in early December by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee. They will be enshrined during a ceremony on July 21 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Nominees needed 75% of the votes cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for induction. There were 26 players on this year’s ballot, with 12 newcomers.

Beltre, 44, joins Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero and David Ortiz as natives of the Dominican Republic to be enshrined. He received 95.1% of the ballots cast.

He spent most of his 21-year major league career at third base, winning five Gold Gloves, MLB.com reported. At the plate, he collected 3,166 hits, hit 477 home runs and had 1,707 RBI, according to Baseball-Reference.com. He earned four Silver Slugger Awards, given to the best offensive player at each position, ESPN reported. He is also the first Dominican-born player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau.

Beltre signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was 16 and began his major league career in 1998 in L.A. when he was 19, the Los Angeles Times reported. In 2004, he hit 48 home runs and had a 1.017 on-base-plus slugging percentage, according to the newspaper.

In 2005, Beltre moved to the Seattle Mariners as a free agent and remained with them through 2009. After a one-year stop in Boston in 2010, Beltre spent his final eight years with the Texas Rangers.

His career highlights include a game-tying home run in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series, when Beltre went to one knee and slashed a breaking ball by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter and sending it over the left-field fence.

But he is also remembered for dragging the on-deck circle before an at-bat in 2007 to defy umpire Gerry Davis, who had ordered him to stay near it in accordance with baseball rules (Beltre had moved away to observe new pitcher Drew Steckenrider’s warmup pitches). Instead, Beltre moved the on-deck circle to where he was standing and was ejected.

“I wasn’t being funny,” Beltre said after the game, according to MLB.com. “He told me to stand on the mat so I pulled the mat where I was and stand on it. I actually did what he told me. I was listening.”

“Afterwards, people were saying, ‘Wow, the second-base umpire must not have much of a sense of humor,’” Davis told MLB.com. “Quite frankly, I thought it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.”

But the rule had to be enforced, Davis said.

Beltre was inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame in 2021.

Mauer, 40, spent his entire 15-year career with the Twins after being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 MLB June Amateur Draft. Mostly a catcher, Mauer also saw time at first base and designated hitter. He was elected with 76.1% of the vote.

The six-time All-Star finished his career with a .306 batting average and drove in 923 runs, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Mauer won three American League batting titles, posting numbers of .347 in 2006, .328 in 2008 and .365 in 2009, when he won A.L. MVP honors.

Including Mauer, only four catchers have won batting titles in MLB -- Buster Posey (2012), Ernie Lombardi (1938, 1942) and Eugene “Bubbles” Hargrave in 1926. Mauer is the only A.L. catcher to achieve the feat.

Mauer led the league in on-base percentage two times and was the leader in slugging in 2009, CBS Sports reported. The right-handed hitter collected 2,123 hits, including 428 doubles and 143 home runs, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Helton, 50, was in his sixth year of eligibility and spent his entire 17-year career with the Colorado Rockies. He received four votes more than the 75% needed for election, finishing at 79.7%.

During a 10-year stretch from his rookie season in 1998 to 2007, Helton batted at least .300 and averaged 30 home runs and 108 RBI per season, USA Today reported. He finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year balloting in 1998 to Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood.

Helton’s best season was 2000, when he led the major leagues in batting (.372), hits (216), RBI (147) and doubles (59), according to Baseball-Reference.com. He also hit 43 home runs.

He finished his career with a .316 average, hit 369 home runs and drove in 1,406 runs. He also scored 1,401 runs and won four Silver Slugger Awards.

Billy Wagner, Gary Sheffield and Andruw Jones fell short of the 75% threshold.

Wagner, 52, fell five votes short of election in his ninth season of eligibility and was at 73.8%. The star reliever collected 422 saves with five teams during his 16-year major league career.

Wagner was a seven-time All-Star and ranks sixth on the all-time saves list.

Only three closers had been elected since 2009, according to USA Today. They were Trevor Hoffman in 2018, Mariano Rivera in 2019 -- the only player ever to be elected unanimously to the Hall -- and Lee Smith, also in 2019. The other five closers elected are Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Dennis Eckersley.

Wagner currently coaches baseball at the Miller School of Albemarle, a 1,600-acre located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Charlottesville, Virginia, according to The Athletic.

Sheffield, in his final season on the ballot, played for seven teams over 22 seasons and came close to induction again. He appeared on 63.9% of the ballots.

Sheffield, 55, had 2,689 hits and 500 home runs during his career, according to Baseball-Reference.com. The nine-time All-Star had seasons of 100 or more RBI eight times during his career and finished with 1,676.

He batted .330 in 1992 to win the N.L. batting title and won five Silver Slugger Awards.

Jones, 46, in his seventh year on the ballot, won 10 Gold Glove Awards as an outfielder during his 17-year career. He spent his first 12 years with the Atlanta Braves and was a star in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series, hitting a pair of home runs and driving in five runs as a 19-year-old rookie.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Jones hit 434 home runs and led the majors with 51 in 2005. He also led the N.L. with 128 RBI in 2005. The five-time All-Star finished his career with a .254 batting average and drove in 1,289 runs.

Jones pulled in 61.6% of the vote.

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