Of the eight former Los Angeles Dodgers on the 2024 National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, Adrián Beltré was the only member of the group to be elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, along with Todd Helton and Joe Mauer.
Beltré was an overwhelming favorite to be enshrined in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot, and that played out to receiving 95.1% of the vote. Hall of Fame candidates must be named on 75% of ballots cast in order to be inducted into Cooperstown.
Beltré began his career by signing with the Dodgers in 1994 as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic. Beltré made his MLB debut in 1998 and spent the first seven seasons of his career with L.A.
That stretch included playing with current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who had high praise for Beltré when reflecting on their time as teammates, via Rowan Kavner of Fox Sports:
“He’s on my Mt. Rushmore of teammates,” Roberts, who played with Beltré for three years from 2002 to 2004 in Los Angeles, told FOX Sports. “The ability for him to compartmentalize, whether it be joking with a catcher in between at-bats, or a pitcher in between at-bats, or a baserunner at third base, and then he’s got to make a great barehanded play the next pitched ball, he just has that innate ability to be able to compartmentalize but continue to remain focused. That is just so difficult, and he mastered it.”
Beltré and Roberts were Dodgers teammates from 2002-2004, during which the team won 270 games and one National League West title. That came in 2004, which amounted to getting eliminated by the St. Louis Cardinals in four games of the NL Division Series.
Beltré finished second in NL MVP voting that year, his final season with the Dodgers.
Adrián Beltré’s Dodgers career
Over parts of seven seasons with the Dodgers, Beltré hit .274/.332/.463 with 176 doubles, 147 home runs and 510 RBI. In 2004, he batted .334/.388/.629 with 32 doubles, an MLB-leading 48 home runs and 121 RBI across 156 games.
Beltré accumulated 9.6 WAR that season en route to a Silver Slugger Award and second-place finish for NL MVP.
He hoped to remain with the Dodgers for the rest of his career but ultimately signed with the Seattle Mariners as a free agent. Beltré spent five years with the organization before going on to have stints with the Boston Red Sox (2010) and Texas Rangers (2011-2018).
Beltré played 2,759 of his 2,933 career games at third base, second only to the 2,870 by fellow Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
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