The Veterans Committee Elects Jeff Kent to the Hall of Fame, But Some Other Confusing Stuff Happened Too

On Sunday, we got our first official Hall of Fame announcement for the Class of 2026, with the Veterans Committee’s Contemporary Era panel revealing the results of their election. And somehow, the results were both very predictable and rather baffling. But first, we’ll start with the big headline: Jeff Kent will be joining the Hall of Fame in 2026.

Welcome to Cooperstown, Jeff Kent! baseballhall.org/hall-of-fame...

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— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (@baseballhall.org) December 7, 2025 at 4:35 PM

I wrote several pieces previewing this election (thank you to everyone who read them!), and if you read those, this is in some ways unsurprising. I more or less began that mini-series by saying “I believe that Jeff Kent is the most likely Veterans Committee inductee this voting cycle, and probably the only one I would place above 50/50 odds”, and finished it by saying “If you want that broken down to ‘which outcomes are the most likely’, it probably comes out to ‘only Kent gets in’”. Those are both direct quotes, by the way; good job, past me! 

Built with Kit

If you’d like a fuller accounting of his career, I’ve done a longer write-up of the merits of his case before. The short version of it is that Kent was a big power hitter at a position that normally isn’t home to power hitters, and he racked up some impressive totals as a result. His 377 home runs are the most ever for a second baseman, blowing by Rogers Hornsby’s seven-decade old record of 301, and he looks set to stay at the top for some time still. His 1518 RBI make him one of just three second basemen to pass 1500, along with Nap Lajoie and Hornsby again. And despite a bit of a delayed start to his career, he still managed nearly 2500 hits, too.

(Stats from Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs unless otherwise stated, by the way.)

Reviewing the 2026 Veterans Committee Ballot, Part 3: Breaking Down the Voters and Final Predictions

Earlier this week, I reviewed the Veterans Committee ballot ahead of their upcoming December 7th announcement. Part 1 (which can be read here) covered the cases of Gary Sheffield, Carlos Delgado, Fernando Valenzuela, and most-likely inductee Jeff Kent; Part 2 (which can be read here) covered the new rules shenanigans that are likely to impact the candidacies of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy. Check both of those out if you haven’t already, I think I did a pretty good job on them!

And now, we finally have the final piece of the puzzle: earlier this week, the Hall of Fame officially announced the sixteen people who will be serving as voters for the vote this weekend. If you haven’t been following the most recent iteration of Veterans Committee elections as closely, this has kind of become a big deal over the last few years. The VC has always been unique in that they meet to discuss votes in person, and these conversations can have a notable impact on the final results as members try to strategize or campaign for certain candidates. Of particular note was the 2019 election, where Harold Baines swung a surprise induction while going in front of an especially-favorable set of voters. 

Built with Kit

Nothing since has been quite that shocking, but looking at the committee can sometimes give you clues to what’s on the horizon. For example, last year’s sixteen panelists tilted me towards predicting Dave Parker would make it in, which did indeed happen. It’s not a guarantee to have an effect (I thought last year’s panelists might be sympathetic to Luis Tiant too, which did not occur in the slightest), but it’s always worth taking a look. This year’s set of voters is:

Hall of Fame Players: Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, and Robin Yount
Executives: Owners Mark Attanasio and Arte Moreno, plus General Managers Doug Melvin, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins, and Terry Ryan
Writers: Jayson Stark and Tyler Kepner of The Athletic, plus historian Steve Hirdt

I don’t know that there’s one overriding theme this time, in the way that there was with the Baines ballot. However, that has been kind of the norm since then; I think the Hall realized that it was a bad look (even if probably unintentional), and has been going out of its way to avoid a repeat. But there are smaller trends that can play a part, and sometimes add up. Going through my thoughts on those, roughly in order that they occurred to me:

Reviewing the 2026 Veterans Committee Ballot, Part 2: The More Complicated Half (and the New Rule That Caused It)

Earlier this week, I began breaking down the 2026 Veterans Committee’s Hall of Fame ballot. I started with the four cases that I think needed the least context or rules-gaming, specifically Jeff Kent, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Delgado, and Fernando Valenzuela (plus, there’s a general refresher on voting rules, too). If you missed it, take a minute to check it out now! Especially since the election itself is coming up soon (specifically, on December 7th).

The Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot features eight candidates for consideration in the Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Results will be announced at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 7: ow.ly/Agwx50XlQRH

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— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (@baseballhall.org) November 3, 2025 at 8:05 AM

That leaves us with the other four names to cover today: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy. This part gets frustrating to write about, and I think that is in large part because it’s the worst kind of Hall of Fame discussion: one where the real focus of the talk isn’t the players up for induction, but instead about the Hall itself and its various rules and politics. It’s like when the umpires become the focus of a game, it’s a sign that something is not going right. 

Built with Kit

(Stats are from Baseball-Refernce unless otherwise noted.)

In fact, we can probably knock out the player discussion in much less time than I spent on the other four, in large part because all of them have been the subject of Hall discussions for ages now (despite little actual movement in the central cases). Mattingly and Murphy have been up for election since even before I started writing about this, spending fifteen years on the annual BBWAA ballot (beginning in 2001 and 1999, respectively), aging off of that, and then making it to three additional (non-annual) Veterans Committee ballots prior to this year.