Baseball is still grappling with some of the ugliness of its past when it comes to the Hall of Fame.
Alex Rodriguez didn’t come close to being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year, his first time on the ballot, and his chances don’t look much better after Tuesday’s announcement.
Another former Yankee with a colorful past, Carlos Beltran, made his ballot debut this year and also looks set to miss the cut.
As of Monday night, according to ballot tracker @NotMrTibs, Rodriguez was at 40.0 percent – up from 34.3 percent last year – while Beltran was at 55.7 percent, both well below the 75 percent needed among BBWAA voters are revealed, with 46.7 percent of the ballots being public.
Rodriguez’s status is muddled by his admitted steroid use, which also kept Barry Bonds out of the Hall of Fame during his 10 years on the ballot.
Beltran was on a Hall of Famer-worthy path until his role in the 2017 Houston Astros sign-theft scandal became public in 2019. He then lost his job as the Mets manager before returning to the game a year ago in a different capacity — as a JA network broadcaster.
Beltran was the only player penalized for the Astros scandal as players were granted immunity for collaborating with MLB’s investigations, but Beltran retired as a player after that season.
During their 2017 championship season, Houston illegally used a video monitor and trash can to let batsmen in their lineup know what pitch was coming up.
After accepting the broadcasting job at YES in March — a job he is set to return to this season — Beltran admitted the Astros “crossed the line.”
“We all did what we did,” Beltran said. “If we look back today, we were wrong.”
In May, Beltran told The Post of his future in the game: “I hope people have seen how I feel, how everything has turned out and who I am. What happened, everyone knows what happened. It was a team. The fact that I was in trouble [as the only player], that’s the hard part. But I have to move forward.”
Alex Rodriguez’s 2023 Hall of Fame fall doesn’t seem to be going much better than last year’s. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
Todd Helton seems likely to gain an anchor.AP Photo
On paper, the 45-year-old Beltran would arguably be a figurehead for Cooperstown because at 435 he has the fourth most home runs by a switch-hitter in MLB history, behind only Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray and Chipper Jones — all Hall of Famers. And his postseason performances are among the best of all time.
According to @NotMrTibbs, Scott Rolen and Todd Helton have the best odds of being selected, with Helton at 80.0 percent and Rolen at 79.5 percent. Billy Wagner fell just short with 73.5 percent.
Even if no players are elected on Tuesday, there will be a players’ representation in Cooperstown this summer since Fred McGriff was elected by the Contemporary Era committee last month.