Carlos Beltran’s Hall of Fame selection gives us a NY Mets players traded theme

The numbers tell us Carlos Beltran should be a first ballot Hall of Famer. If not for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, New York Mets fans would have been celebrating his Cooperstown induction years ago.

Now the time has come. Forgiveness after waiting a few years, Beltran will enter as a part of the 2026 Hall of Fame class with 84.2% of the vote. He goes in alongside Jeff Kent who was elected late last year as part of the Veteran’s Committee. 

The pair have an odd Mets coincidence in their careers. Each happened to be traded away by the Mets.

Carlos Beltran will be the second player the Mets traded to go into Cooperstown this summer

Beltran carved out a unique and modern Hall of Fame path. He played parts of 7 seasons with the Kansas City Royals and the same with the New York Mets. He totaled up 44 more games with the Mets, playing the peak of his career in New York. His time came to a close in 2011 when the organization was spiraling and the San Francisco Giants offered them top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler in exchange.

The numbers weren’t incredibly different, but did come out looking better as a member of the Mets overall. He’ll undoubtedly wear a Mets cap into Cooperstown. His employment by the franchise assures it.

Kent has an even more unique place in Mets history as far as trades go. He was acquired in the August, 1992 trade for David Cone with the Toronto Blue Jays. And if you’re a part of the fan club, you think Cone should be in the Hall of Fame, too.

Kent’s time wasn’t memorable, playing in some of the leanest Mets seasons imaginable. He was good, but not the MVP player he became once he joined the San Francisco Giants, the team the Mets traded Beltran to thus confirming we live in a simulation and there was a glitch in the matrix.

The Mets first traded Kent to the Cleveland Indians in mid-1996. Although it also included Jose Vizcaino and Alvaro Espinoza, we remember the Mets acquiring Carlos Baerga most of all. He was a player on the downtrend of his career while Kent hadn’t even begun to put up the numbers that would make him a Hall of Famer. Unique in his own way, he didn’t become the notorious power-hitting second baseman until his age 29 season in 1997.

Beltran should draw some Mets fans up to Cooperstown. It’s not a long trip. We might even spot a few fans in their early 40s wearing blue and orange Kent jerseys ripped out of the closet from 1994.

An odd pairing for the Hall of Fame class, we can classify the Kent for Baerga deals as one of the worst the franchise has ever made. Meanwhile, the Beltran for Wheeler is one of their best for a prospect.