Jeff Kent is headed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were once again left in the cold by voters.
The five-time All-Star second baseman was granted enshrinement on Sunday by committee vote. Meanwhile Bonds and Clemens again fell short after 10 failed BBWAA elections and their first failed committee vote. Candidates needed 12 votes from this year’s 16-member Contemporary Era Committee.
New rule means Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens can’t reach Cooperstown until 2031
This year had eight players up for a vote: Bonds, Clemens, Kent, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
Kent got 14 votes, while Delgado was closest with nine. Mattingly and Murphy both got six, while Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela all got fewer than five. Due to a 2025 rule change, failing to get five or more votes in this cycle means Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela will be ineligible for the next Contemporary Era ballot in 2028.
That means the earliest that Bonds and Clemens can now make the Hall is 2031.
