Jeff Kent selected for Baseball Hall of Fame

Voting results for the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee’s ballot were announced on Sunday evening, as Jeff Kent was the lone player selected, receiving 14 of 16 votes (87.5%) cast by the committee. This year’s ballot consisted of players whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980, and candidates needed to receive 75% of the votes cast by the 16-member committee to become part of the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Class.

That 16-member committee included several ties to the Brewers. The committee had seven Hall of Famers, including former Brewer Robin Yount, Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, and Alan Trammell; MLB executives including Brewer owner Mark Attanasio, former Brewer general manager Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno (Angels owner), Kim Ng (former Marlins GM, now Commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL)), Tony Reagins (former Angels GM, now Chief Baseball Development Officer), and Terry Ryan (Janesville-born, UW-Madison graduate, former Twins GM, now retired); and media members/historians Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner, and Jayson Stark.

For a full breakdown of the eight players on the ballot — Kent, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, former Brewer Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela — check out this article from Paul, where he did a deep dive last week.

Delgado finished with nine votes, three shy of the mark needed for induction, while Murphy and Mattingly each received six votes. Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield, and Valenzuela each received fewer than five votes, making them ineligible to appear on any ballot until at least 2031.

Kent, 57, was a 20th-round pick out of California by the Blue Jays in 1989. He made his debut in 1992 with the Jays before stints with the Mets (1992-1996), Indians (1996), Giants (1997-2002), Astros (2003-2004), and Dodgers (2005-2008).

Across his 17-year career, Kent accumulated 55.4 bWAR, hitting .290/.356/.500 with 2,461 hits, 377 homers, 560 doubles, 47 triples, 1,518 RBIs, 1,320 runs, and 94 steals. His best seasons came with the Giants in the late 90s and early 2000s, as he was an All-Star in three consecutive seasons wrapping around the turn of the century. He was also named NL MVP in 2000, hitting .334/.424/.596 with 33 homers, 125 RBIs, and 114 runs scored to total 7.2 bWAR, even as teammate Barry Bonds — winner of the NL MVP the following four years — totaled 7.7 bWAR with a .306/.440/.688 line with 49 homers, 106 RBIs, and 129 runs scored.

The rest of the 2026 Hall of Fame class will be announced on January 20, with induction set for July 26, 2026. in Cooperstown, New York.