Kent and Beltran Follow Divergent Paths to Join Former Giants in Hall of Fame

Giants’ Legacy in the Baseball Hall of Fame

More members of the Baseball Hall of Fame have worn a Giants uniform than any other franchise. Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran will join the ranks of the Hall of Fame on July 26, along with longtime Braves center fielder Andruw Jones, as part of the Class of 2026. Their journeys to Cooperstown could not have been more different.

Beltran’s time in San Francisco was brief, a productive but short-lived chapter in a 20-year career that saw him star for seven teams. Kent, on the other hand, joins an elite group of Hall of Famers who were primarily associated with the Giants or achieved their greatest success with the franchise. This includes legends like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, and Gaylord Perry.

Kent played for three teams before joining the Giants and two more after he left as a free agent, including the hated Dodgers. However, his partnership with Barry Bonds in the middle of the Giants’ lineup became legendary. Kent hit more home runs as a second baseman than anyone in MLB history (351), with 171 of those coming with the Giants.

“There’s no doubt all my accomplishments, my passion and my heart was left in San Francisco,” Kent said in 2009 when he was added to the franchise’s Wall of Fame.

Even without the Hall of Fame call, both Beltran and Kent would have remained part of Giants lore. Their careers began as a result of trades that sparked intense debate at the time, but for very different reasons.

Beltran was 34 and a six-time All-Star in 2011 when the Giants acquired him from the Mets to help bolster their chances of defending their World Series title. Despite losing Buster Posey to a devastating injury, the Giants had a four-game lead over Arizona in the National League West when Beltran arrived. Fans were thrilled by the bold move, which only cost the Giants cash and a minor league pitcher who had barely played a full season.

Beltran boosted the offense, hitting .323 with seven home runs, nine doubles, and four triples in 44 games. However, he missed two weeks with a hand injury in early August, a stretch that saw the Giants fall out of first place. They never caught the Diamondbacks and missed the wild-card spot by four games.

Beltran, a free agent, signed with the Cardinals and played six more seasons, making three All-Star teams and winning a World Series. The Giants successfully moved on, too, winning the World Series again in 2012 and 2014.

But every time Beltran returned to San Francisco, it was to a chorus of boos. Why the hate? That single-A pitcher, Zack Wheeler, blossomed into a three-time All-Star. He has finished second in Cy Young voting twice and is still one of the best pitchers in the league. Many Giants fans now rank the Beltran trade among the worst in franchise history.

The Kent trade, on the other hand, aged like fine Napa Valley wine. His arrival after the 1996 season from Cleveland, along with pitchers Julián Tavárez and Joe Roa, and infielder José Vizcaíno, is widely considered one of the best trades in franchise history.

That was far from the case when the deal was made because the Giants gave up popular third baseman Matt Williams. There was so much outrage among fans that first-year general manager Brian Sabean took to the airwaves of KNBR, the team’s flagship radio station, to defend the move. “I am not an idiot,” he famously asserted.

Kent, who played collegiately across the bay at Cal, wound up helping create the Giants’ best 1-2 hitting punch since the days of Mays and McCovey.

Kent, 28 at the time of the trade, had never hit more than 21 home runs, batted better than .292, or driven in more than 80 runs in his previous five seasons. But in six seasons with the Giants, Kent batted at least .290 five times – including a career-high .334 in 2000. He drove in at least 101 runs each season (averaging 115) and averaged 29 home runs.

Although there were lots of high-fives and home runs, Kent’s tenure with the Giants was anything but warm and fuzzy. Kent was prickly with everyone, including his teammates, because of his drive for perfection. He and Bonds often were at odds, and were caught on live TV scuffling in the dugout during a game in 2002. Kent’s tenure also included a spring training incident before that season that left Kent with a broken left wrist. He said he got hurt when he slipped while washing his truck, although reports suggested Kent fell off a motorcycle while doing wheelies.

Through it all, Kent and the Giants flourished. The Giants finished last in the N.L. West in 1996 and hadn’t won the division since 1989. They won the West in Kent’s first season and again in 2000, when they reached the World Series. The Giants never finished lower than second with Kent on the team.

“I would not be here,” Kent said this winter when asked about being selected to the Hall of Fame without playing for the Giants. “That was the turning point in my career. When I got to San Francisco, (manager) Dusty Baker lit a fire under me to be better. … Sabean took a chance, and I can claim he wasn’t an idiot.”

Kent made three All-Star teams with the Giants and edged Bonds for the National League MVP in 2000. Bonds won five MVP awards as a Giant, including the first two of his four straight from 2001-04 with Kent in the lineup. Kent played in all but three games in 2001, the year Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s single-season home run record with 73. For what it’s worth, Bonds didn’t homer in any of the games Kent missed.

So, which slugger helped the other more?

Bonds took to social media to congratulate Kent on his Hall of Fame election, writing, “We spent six seasons together with the Giants and shared many successes as teammates, including an unforgettable World Series run.” Kent told reporters that Bonds “was a teammate that helped me. I believe I helped him. I believe he was one of the best baseball players I ever saw.”

Until January, the Hall of Fame figured to elude both of the former Giants stars. Bonds likely will never join Kent in the Hall of Fame because of his connection to the BALCO scandal and suspected steroid use. He was on the same Contemporary Era ballot as Kent, but received fewer than five votes from the 16-person panel. Kent, on the ballot for the first time, received 14 votes, two more than were required to be elected.

Kent’s election was a surprise. Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly were widely considered the favorites before the ballots were announced.

Kent, 58, had been on the baseball writers’ Hall of Fame ballot for the maximum 10 years, but failed to get on 20 percent of the ballots until Year 7. He topped out at 46.5% in his final year, far short of the 75 percent needed for induction.

“I didn’t think about it much during the 10 years of opportunity to get voted in (by the BBWAA),” Kent told reporters. “Not utter disappointment, but just disappointment. Frustration, a little bit, that I wasn’t better recognized, not necessarily that I wasn’t voted in. But a lot of people had said, ‘Hey, you know, you’re a Hall of Famer, blah, blah, blah.’ As the time has gone by, you leave it alone. And I left it alone. I loved the game. Everything I gave to the game, I left there on the field.”

Now, counting Beltran, Kent will be the 63rd Hall of Famer who played for or managed the Giants. And he’ll have some more company soon joining him. Buster Posey will likely be a first-ballot inductee by the baseball writers, and former Giants managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker are good bets to emerge from the Contemporary Era vote.