Former second baseman Jeff Kent has been up for Corridor of Fame consideration for a decade, with this 12 months marking his final crack at induction through the Baseball Writers Affiliation of America. Kent obtained 46.5% of the vote throughout this cycle, nicely shy of the 75% wanted for induction. He falls off the poll and can now not be thought-about by the BBWAA.
Kent hovered within the 25%-50% vote share vary for his remaining 4 seasons. He by no means appeared at risk of falling under the 5% threshold that cuts gamers from the poll early but in addition didn’t get the type of late momentum wanted to vault him inside putting vary of induction. If he’s to be enshrined in Cooperstown, that’ll now have to return through the Period Committee. The Modern Baseball Period Gamers Committee met this winter — enshrining Fred McGriff within the course of — that means the earliest Kent might be into account once more is the 2025-26 offseason.
A right-handed hitter, Kent was one of many recreation’s higher energy bats over his 17-year MLB profession. He performed just below 2,300 video games for six completely different golf equipment, together with his greatest seasons coming as a member of the Giants. Kent hit .297/.368/.535 throughout a six-year stretch in San Francisco spanning 1997-2002. He obtained MVP votes in 5 of these campaigns and received the award in 2000 thanks to an enormous .334/.424/.596 exhibiting with 33 longballs.
Kent completed his profession with a .290/.356/.500 line in additional than 9,500 plate appearances. His 377 profession homers are essentially the most by any major second baseman, whereas he collected 2,461 hits, drove in 1,518 runs and scored 1320 instances. He was a five-time All-Star and secured 4 Silver Slugger awards whereas profitable the aforementioned MVP. As robust as his offensive contributions have been, Kent confronted loads of questions on his glove on the keystone. These defensive issues dissuaded sufficient voters to maintain him from induction.
Whereas Kent was the one participant to “age” off the poll this 12 months, a variety of first-time candidates unsurprisingly dropped out after not reaching the 5% threshold to final one other season. Bronson Arroyo, R.A. Dickey, John Lackey, Mike Napoli, Huston Avenue, Matt Cain, Jacoby Ellsbury, Andre Ethier, J.J. Hardy, Jhonny Peralta, Jered Weaver and Jayson Werth every fall out of future consideration.
Amongst first-time candidates, simply two topped the 5% mark to stay on the poll for not less than one other 12 months. Carlos Beltrán debuted at 46.5% and would appear to have a stable likelihood at induction in some unspecified time in the future down the road. Francisco Rodríguez has a extra uphill battle after beginning off at 10.8% of the vote.
