The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee met on Sunday at the winter meetings in Orlando, trying to decide which players from an eight-person ballot would be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Only one —Jeff Kent — will be inducted in Cooperstown in July 2026, while Fernando Valenzuela and others fell short.
Kent received 14 votes from the 16-person committee, two more than the 75 percent required for induction. Carlos Delgado received nine votes, while Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly received six
votes apiece. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, and Valenzuela all got fewer than five votes, which makes those four ineligible for the 2029 ballot, the next time this committee meets.
Kent played the final four of his 17 major league seasons with the Dodgers, hitting .291/.367/.479 with 122 a OPS+ from 2005-2008. Kent’s 73 home runs as a second baseman with Los Angeles ranks third all-time in franchise history at the position, behind only Davey Lopes and Jackie Robinson.
Kent won National League MVP in 2000 with the Giants, for whom he made three All-Star teams and won three Silver Slugger Awards. Kent also made an All-Star team with the Astros in 2004, and was both an All-Star and Silver Slugger in his first year with the Dodgers in 2005. He hit 377 home runs and hit .290/.356/.500 with a 127 OPS+ over his career, and his 351 home runs as a second baseman are the most in baseball history.
In his 10 years on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot, Kent’s highest showing was 46.5 percent of the vote in 2023, his final year on the ballot.
The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee is for players whose primary contributions came since 1980.
Valenzuela’s Hall of Fame case was less a statistical one, and more of leaning on his status as a Mexican icon, and attracting more Latino fans to the sport, both in Los Angeles and around the world. The bulk of his production came in the first seven full seasons of his career (1981-87), when he made six All-Star teams, won National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year, and averaged 255 innings, 16 wins, and 207 strikeouts.
“I think from everything that has happened to me in my career, I wouldn’t change anything,” Valenzuela told Hector Díaz for True Blue LA in 2022. “I often get asked ‘Would you have pitched less to have a longer career?’ But if you’re thinking that way as a pitcher, you will only mentally prepare yourself for that one thing.”
Valenzuela got his number 34 officially retired by the Dodgers in 2023, one of only two non-Hall-of-Famers to be so honored by the team. Valenzuela, who called Dodgers games on radio for years after his playing days, died in October 2024 on the eve of the World Series.
The 16-person committee that did the voting for this election included Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount; MLB executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan; and veteran media members Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.
Induction ceremonies in Cooperstown will take place on Sunday, July 26, 2026. Any players elected from the BBWAA ballot will be revealed on MLB Network on January 20.
