HOUSTON – Two more former Astros will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday when second baseman Jeff Kent and outfielder Carlos Beltrán are enshrined in Cooperstown, along with former Braves outfielder Andruw Jones.
Neither Beltrán nor Kent, who only spent small portions of their careers in Houston, will be wearing an Astros cap on their Hall of Fame plaques. Beltrán will have a Mets cap, the team he joined in 2005 after leaving the Astros, and Kent will have a Giants cap, the team he played for before coming to Houston.
The only players with an Astros cap on their Hall of Fame plaques are Craig Biggio (Class of 2015), Jeff Bagwell (’17) and Billy Wagner (’25). Beltrán and Kent will be the 12th and 13th former Astros players inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Here’s a snapshot of the 10 Astros Hall of Fame players who don’t have an Astros cap on their plaque:
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Carlos Beltrán (Class of ’26)
Beltrán was acquired in a three-team trade on June 24, 2004, and played 90 games with the Astros, batting .258 with 23 home runs, 53 RBIs and 28 stolen bases. He tied Barry Bonds’ single postseason record by hitting eight home runs (which has since been surpassed by Randy Arozarena’s 10 in 2020) and homered in five consecutive games, a record at the time. Beltrán returned to the Astros in ’17 and was part of their World Series championship club.
Jeff Kent (Class of ’26)
Kent, the 2000 NL MVP with the Giants, signed a two-year, $17.5 million deal prior to the ’03 season to join the Astros. He batted .293 with 49 homers and 200 RBIs in two years in Houston. Kent’s walk-off homer against the Cardinals in Game 5 of the ’04 NLCS put the Astros within one win of reaching the World Series.
Ivan Rodriguez (Class of ’17)
Having played 2,543 games in his 21-year career, including 1,507 with the Rangers, “Pudge” barely had time to unpack his suitcase in Houston. Signed at the end of spring in 2009, Rodriguez hit .251 with eight homers – including his 300th career homer – and 34 RBIs in 327 at-bats with the Astros before being traded back to the Rangers in August.
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Randy Johnson (class of ’15)
The Big Unit came to the Astros in a blockbuster deal at the ‘98 Trade Deadline and went 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA in 11 starts and helped the Astros capture the National League Central division title and 102 wins.
Nolan Ryan (Class of ’99)
Ryan spent nine of his 27 seasons with his hometown Astros (1980-88), winning 106 games while throwing his record-breaking fifth no-hitter (in ’81), breaking Walter Johnson’s all-time strikeout record (’83) and leading the league in ERA (’87) and strikeouts (’87-88).
Don Sutton (Class of ’98)
After 15 seasons with the Dodgers, Sutton signed a four-deal deal with the Astros after the ’80 season and joined a rotation that included Ryan and Joe Niekro. He went 11-9 with a 2.61 ERA in 23 starts with the Astros in ’81, a season that ended prematurely when he broke his kneecap while batting. Sutton delivered more quality work in ’82, going 13-8 in 27 starts before the Astros traded him to the Brewers.
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Nellie Fox (Class of ’97)
Fox won the 1959 AL MVP and was selected as an All-Star in 12 seasons with the White Sox before spending his final two seasons (1964-65) in Houston with the Colt .45s and the Astros.
Joe Morgan (Class of ’90)
Morgan played 10 of his 22 Major League seasons with the Astros, but those two stints came on the bookends of his most productive seasons as part of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine of the 1970s. Morgan was signed as an amateur free agent by the Colt .45s after the ’62 season and played nine years in Houston before regrettably being traded to the Reds in ’71. He returned to Houston for one season in ’80.
Eddie Mathews (Class of ’78)
Mathews was selected as an All-Star in nine seasons and won the home run titles in ’53 and ’59 for the Milwaukee Braves, for whom he played most of his career. He was traded to the Astros prior to the ’67 season and slugged his 500th career homer off Juan Marichal of the Giants.
Robin Roberts (Class of ’76)
Roberts was nearing the end of his 19-year career when he spent parts of two seasons with the Astros, going 8-7 with a 2.77 ERA in 23 games (22 starts) in ’65 and ’66.
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The Astros are still expected to be in the market for relief help prior to the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, with a left-handed outfield bat also on their wish list. While lefty reliever Bryan King was optioned to Triple-A last week, veteran right-hander Bryan Abreu appears to have rescued his season.
Abreu has a 1.86 ERA in his last 9 2/3 innings, surrendering one homer and three walks while striking out 10 batters. He picked up a save in Wednesday’s win over the Marlins on 14 pitches. His average fastball velocity, which had dipped to 93.2 mph on May 19, was 96.1 mph on Wednesday, which is 0.9 mph above his season average.
"The last month he's showing signs that the velo is there, he's throwing quality strikes, his slider is in the zone, he's starting to see chases, he's starting to see more aggressive hitters going after his pitches," manager Joe Espada said. "I'm going to continue to rely on him. We can't win without him. He's one of the best relievers in the game and he's starting to get traction towards the end, and no better time than to do it right now."
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