Hamels, Braun, Kemp Among 12 Newcomers on Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp are among 12 newcomers on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released Monday, and Carlos Beltrán heads 15 holdovers after falling 19 votes shy in 2025 balloting.

Howie Kendrick, Daniel Murphy and Rick Porcello also are among the first-time eligibles, joined by Shin-Soo Choo, Edwin Encarnación, Gio González, Alex Gordon, Nick Markakis and Hunter Pence.

Beltrán received 277 of 394 votes for 70.3% in the 2025 balloting, when Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected.

A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán hit .279 with 435 homers and 1,587 RBIs over 17 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, '17), the New York Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016).

He received 46.5% support in his first ballot appearance in 2023, then rose to 57.1% in his second.

Beltrán was the only player cited by name in baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred's 2020 report concluding the Astros used electronics in violation of rules to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the 2018 season. Three days after the report was issued, the New York Mets said Beltrán was out as their manager, just 2 1/2 months after he was hired.

Other holdovers include steroids-tainted stars Alex Rodriguez (146 votes, 37.1%) and Manny Ramirez (135, 34.3%) along with Andruw Jones (261, 66.2%), Chase Utley (157, 39.8%), Andy Pettitte (110, 27.9%), Félix Hernández (81, 20.6%), Bobby Abreu (77, 19.5%), Jimmy Rollins (71, 18%), Omar Vizquel (70, 17.8%), Dustin Pedroia (47, 11.9%), Mark Buehrle (45, 11.4%), Francisco Rodríguez (40, 10.2%), David Wright (32, 8.1%) and Torii Hunter (20, 5.1%).

Pettitte is on the ballot for the