Jeff Kent was elected to the Baseball Corridor of Fame, as revealed by the Modern Baseball Period Committee tonight. Kent acquired 14 of a attainable 16 votes from the Period Committee, simply topping the 75% (12 of 16) threshold wanted for induction to Cooperstown. Of the opposite seven candidates into consideration, Carlos Delgado was the next-closest candidate with 9 votes, and Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly every acquired six votes. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela all acquired lower than 5 votes.
A veteran of 17 Main League seasons with the Blue Jays, Mets, Indians, Giants, Astros, and Dodgers from 1992-2008, Kent hit extra homers as a second baseman than another participant in historical past, going yard 351 instances from the place. His resume consists of 4 Silver Slugger awards and 5 All-Star nods, in addition to the 2000 NL MVP Award when Kent was a member of the Giants.
Kent is primarily remembered for his six seasons in San Francisco and 5 seasons with the Mets. Starting his profession as a well-regarded prospect within the Blue Jays’ farm system, Roberto Alomar’s presence in Toronto made Kent expendable, and the Jays dealt Kent for David Cone in August 1992. Cone’s presence helped the Blue Jays seize the 1992 World Collection, whereas Kent went onto set up himself as a stable common throughout his time in New York.
The 1996 commerce deadline noticed Kent once more on the transfer, this time to Cleveland. In the course of the 1996-97 offseason, the Tribe flipped Kent to San Francisco, the place he really rose to stardom. Kent hit .297/.368/.535 with 175 homers over 3903 plate appearances and an excellent 900 video games with the Giants from 1997-2002, teaming with Bonds to type a devastating one-two punch within the lineup. The 2002 Giants reached the World Collection for Kent’s solely look within the Fall Traditional, because the group fell simply brief in a seven-game loss to the Angels. For his profession within the postseason, Kent hit a stable .276/.340/.500 over 189 PA.
Kent spent his last six seasons with the Astros (2003-04) and Dodgers (05-08), and remained an offensive drive on the plate till his manufacturing lastly trailed off in his seventeenth and last MLB season. Over 2298 profession video games and 9537 PA, Kent hit .290/.356/.500 with 377 dwelling runs, 1518 RBI, and 1320 runs scored.
Regardless of his spectacular profession numbers, Kent didn’t achieve a lot traction throughout his 10 years on the writers’ poll, as he by no means acquired greater than 46.5% of the vote. A crowded poll throughout Kent’s period didn’t assist, but his subpar protection and surly status in all probability additionally didn’t assist curry a lot favor with voters. Clubhouse controversy adopted Kent throughout his time with the Mets and Giants, and his stint in San Francisco included a well-publicized feud with Bonds. There may be some irony, due to this fact, in the truth that Kent is lastly making it into Cooperstown whereas on the identical Period Committee poll as his former Giants teammate.
Previously generally known as the Veterans Committee, the Period Committee is the most recent incarnation of the method that for many years has given some recent analysis and a second probability to gamers initially missed on the writers’ poll. This 12 months’s model of the Period Committee centered on gamers whose biggest contributions got here throughout the “Modern Baseball” (1980-present) period. Subsequent 12 months’s poll will deal with managers, executives, and umpires from the Modern Baseball period, and the 2027 poll will take into account candidates from the “Traditional Baseball” period (previous to 1980) earlier than Modern Gamers are once more thought-about in 2028.
A rule change launched this 12 months added an additional layer of intrigue (and even controversy) to this 12 months’s proceedings. As a result of they acquired lower than 5 votes on this 12 months’s poll, Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield, and Valenzuela should be omitted from the following voting cycle, and might’t return to the Modern Gamers poll till no less than 2031. If any of those 4 gamers then don’t obtain no less than 5 votes in 2031 or on any future poll, they’re now not eligible for inclusion on any Modern Gamers poll.
The goal of this new rule is to permit extra candidates to be included on Period Committee ballots frequently. The idea of everlasting disqualification from ballots, nonetheless, has been seen by some as a means for the Corridor of Fame to sidestep the continuing controversy about Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield, or different distinguished superstars (i.e. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro) who have been linked to PEDs. Whereas clearly Period Committee guidelines may once more be altered down the street, for now, the trail to Cooperstown has gotten even narrower for Bonds, Clemens, or Sheffield.
The outcomes of the writers’ poll will probably be introduced on January 20, with such gamers as Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones seen as sturdy candidates to lastly recover from the 75% threshold after a number of years on the poll (9 years for Jones, 4 years for Beltran). Any gamers elected on January 20 will be part of Kent in being formally inducted into the Corridor of Fame on July 26 in Cooperstown.
The 16 members of this 12 months’s Period Committee may vote for as many as three gamers, and as few as zero gamers. This 12 months’s Period Committee was comprised of seven Corridor of Famers (Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, Robin Yount), 4 former MLB common managers (Doug Melvin, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins, Terry Ryan), two present MLB house owners (the Brewers’ Mark Attansio and the Angels’ Arte Moreno), two media members (the Athletic’s Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark), and historian Steve Hirdt.
