All-Time Leaders Stats Make It Clear: Adrián Beltré Is First-Ballot Hall of Famer

Texas Rangers legend Adrián Beltré is among the game's all-time leaders in all the most important statistics and ranks as one of the best third basemen ever to play.

Adrián Beltré should be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame today.

The former Texas Rangers third baseman is in his first year of eligibility after retiring five seasons ago.

Beltré should be a no-brainer selection for voters, but only one player has ever received 100% of the votes: Mariano Rivera in 2019. He was selected by all 425 voters in his first year of eligibility.

It's hard to argue with Rivera's perfect ballot. He is considered the greatest relief pitcher in the game's history, and the numbers back that up.

But other no-brainer selections didn't receive the same courtesy from voters, including Derek Jeter (one vote shy in 2020) and Ken Griffey Jr. (three votes shy in 2016).

Heck, 11 lunkheads didn't vote for Babe Ruth in 1936 as part of the inaugural class.

Votes were due by Dec. 31, so we're past the point of trying to show how Beltre was clearly a Hall of Famer. Anyone who saw him play on a daily basis can attest to his special talent. Anyone who knows how to look up statistics on bas-ref.com has no excuse for not voting for him.  He's a no-brainer.

Adrián Beltré's Statistical Ranks All-Time

Adrián Beltré is one of the greatest ever to play the game, and his all-time numbers make that clear:

Wins Above Replacement

40th all-time at 93.5. That includes pitchers and position players. He's 27th among all-time position players.

WAR Among Third Baseman

3rd all-time at 93.5. Only Mike Schmidt and Eddie Matthews rank ahead of Beltre among third basemen. Of the top 11 third baseman in all-time WAR, only Beltre is not in the Hall of Fame ... yet.

Hits

18th all-time with 3,166. Only 17 players in the history of the game collected more hits than Beltre. Of those 18, 10 played more seasons than Beltre's 21.

Doubles

11th all-time with 636. He had more doubles than Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, Barry Bonds, Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter, Dave Winfield, and Tony Gwynn.

Home Runs

31st all-time with 477. He had more homers than Stan Musial, Winfield, Carl Yastrzemski, Jeff Bagwell, and Chipper Jones.

Total Bases

15th all-time with 5,309. He had more total bases than Griffey, Ripken, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Jeter, and George Brett. 

Runs Batted In

25th all-time with 1,707. He had more RBI than Frank Thomas, Reggie Jackson, Ernie Banks, Mike Schmidt, Brett, Ripken, and Rogers Hornsby and Harmon Killebrew.

Runs Scored

65th all-time with 1,524. He scored more runs than Jeff Bagwell, Eddie Mathews, Rod Carew, Schmidt, and Joe DiMaggio.

Extra-Base Hits

15th all-time with 1,151. He had more extra-base hits than Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Ted Williams, Craig Biggio, and Al Kaline.

'It Couldn't Have Gone Any Better': An Ode To Adrián Beltré's Time With Rangers

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