Former Mets Carlos Beltrán, David Wright, Francisco Rodriguez, Daniel Murphy, Bobby Abreu, and Rick Porcello are all on the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. Joining the half-dozen ex-Mets are returning players
Andruw Jones, Chase Utley, Félix Hernández, Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, Omar Vizquel, and first-year eligible Ryan Braun, Shin-Soo Choo, Edwin Encarnación, Gio Gonzalez, Alex Gordon, Cole Hammels, Matt Kemp, Howie Kendrick, Nick Markakis, and Hunter Pence.
Players need to receive 75% of the votes to be elected to the Hall of Fame. If they receive less than 5%, they fall off the ballot. If they do not get elected in ten years, they are removed from the ballot. Other committees, such as the Contemporary Era Committee, may take up their cases in later years.
Beltrán appears the most likely candidate to get in, Met or otherwise, as he topped out at 70.3% last year. This is Beltrán’s fourth year on the ballot. Beltrán’s career shouldn’t need a recap for Mets fans, as he hit .280/.269/.500 with 149 home runs and 100 stolen bases, along with five All-Star Game appearances, two Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and down-ballot MVP votes thrice in his seven seasons playing for the Mets. For his career, Beltran put up 70.0 bWAR.
Murphy and Porcello are the only first-ballot Mets this season. Porcello ended his career with the Mets, making 12 starts in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. His 5.64 ERA and 76 ERA+ weren’t exactly up to his career norms, but Porcello was never an incredibly dominant starter, despite his 2016 Cy Young Award.
Murphy, an occasional Mets color analyst, played seven years for the Mets, playing second base, left field, third base, and first base for the club while putting up 13.1 bWAR. He was a key member of their 2015 World Series run, having an incredible playoffs that led to him signing a three-year deal with the Nationals that took him away from New York. After having his best two years in the majors in his first two years in Washington, his career fell off a cliff and after signing a bad deal with the Rockies, he was out of baseball after 2020.
Murphy will likely be remembered for comments he made after the late Billy Bean visited the Mets as MLB’s ambassador of inclusion in 2015. As he told NJ.com:
“I disagree with his lifestyle. I do disagree with the fact that Billy is a homosexual. That doesn’t mean I can’t still invest in him and get to know him. I don’t think the fact that someone is a homosexual should completely shut the door on investing in them in a relational aspect. Getting to know him.
“That, I would say, you can still accept them. But I do disagree with the lifestyle, 100 percent. Maybe, as a Christian … we haven’t been as articulate enough in describing what our actual stance is on homosexuality. We love the people. We disagree (with) the lifestyle. That’s the way I would describe it for me.
“It’s the same way that there are aspects of my life that I’m trying to surrender to Christ in my own life. There’s a great deal of many things, like my pride. I just think that as a believer, trying to articulate it in a way that says just because I disagree with the lifestyle doesn’t mean I’m just never going to speak to Billy Bean every time he walks through the door. That’s not love. That’s not love at all.”
Of the other former Mets, last year Wright received 8.1% in his third year of eligibility, Abreu received 19.5% in his seventh year, and Rodriguez got 10.2% in his fourth year. Rodriguez was twice-arrested during his playing career; once on an assault charge from an incident involving his father-in-law at Citi Field, and once from on a domestic violence charge with his girlfriend while playing for the Brewers.
Wright had his number retired at Citi Field earlier this year.
Although only six of the players on the ballot suited up for the Mets, a seventh was in their system for a scant eight games in 2019 when Matt Kemp played briefly for the Triple-A Syracuse Mets.
