Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton appeared on track to gain entry to baseball's Hall of Fame when results are announced Tuesday, while Billy Wagner was likely to be right around the needed 75% threshold and Gary Sheffield was projected to fall short. Just 270 players are in the Hall, 1.3% of the approximately 20,500 who have appeared in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. “These votes are literally life-changing,” said The Athletic's Jayson Stark, who has cast ballots for three decades.
Ronald Acuña Jr. joined baseball’s exclusive 40-40 club Friday night by hitting his 40th home run of the season for the Atlanta Braves to go along with his 68 stolen bases. Acuña became the fifth player in major league history to have at least 40 homers and 40 steals in the same year. The others were Alfonso Soriano for the Washington Nationals in 2006, Alex Rodríguez for the Seattle Mariners in 1998, Barry Bonds for the San Francisco Giants in 1996, and Jose Canseco for the Oakland Athletics in 1988.