Jeff Kent elected to baseball Hall of Fame, which again keeps doors shut for Bonds and Clemens

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Elected to baseball's Hall of Fame more than 17 years after his final game, Jeff Kent couldn't control his emotions.

“Absolutely unprepared. Emotionally unstable,” he said after Sunday's vote announcement. “Thoughts are so far clouded."

Kent received 14 of 16 votes from the contemporary era committee, two more than the 12 ballots needed for the 75% minimum. Steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were among seven players who fell short once again.

Kent will be inducted in Cooperstown, New York, on July 26 along with anyone chosen by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 20.

“I hugged my wife after the the phone call had come in," Kent said, his voice cracking, “and I told her that a lot of the game had come rushing back to me at that moment. Similar to my retirement speech, my farewell speech that I did in LA, it reminds me of the 'no crying in baseball.' Well, I was bawling when I left the game because all that emotion just overcomes you.”

A five-time All-Star second baseman, Kent hit .290 with 377 homers and 1,518 RBIs over 17 seasons with Toronto (1992), the New York Mets (1992-96), Cleveland (1996), San Francisco (1997-2002), Houston (2003-04) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2005-08).

His 351 home runs as a second baseman are the most by a player at that position. Kent’s most productive seasons were with the Giants, joined in the lineup by the record-setting Bonds.

"I think I’ve turned the double play better than anybody in the game during my era," Kent said.

Carlos Delgado received nine votes, followed by Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy with six each. Bonds, Clemens, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela each received fewer than five votes and can't appear on the ballot again until 2031.

Bonds and Clemens also fell short in 2022 in their 10th and final appearances on the BBWAA ballot. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens maintains he never used PEDs.

“Barry was a good teammate of mine. He was a guy that I motivated and pushed,” Kent said. “We knocked heads a little bit. He was a guy that motivated me at times, in frustration and love, at times both. ... If you’re talking about moral code and all that, I’m not a voter and I’m trying to stay away from all of that the best I can because I don’t, I really don’t have an opinion.”

Kent's relationship with the Giants became strained when he broke a bone in his left wrist during spring training in 2002. Kent told team athletic trainer Stan Conte he got hurt while washing his truck the previous day, but Giants general manager Brian Sabean said three weeks later “there’s mounting evidence from all sorts of eyewitnesses that says he fell off a motorcycle popping wheelies.”

“That'll die with me,” Kent said Monday. “But what you think happened, there’s some truth to it and what did happen, what I said happened, there’s some truth to that.”

Kent also scuffled with Bonds in the dugout that June 25 during a game in San Diego.

Kent received 15.2% in his first BBWAA appearance in 2014 and a high of 46.5% in the last of his 10 times on the ballot in 2023.

“The moments seemed to pass by in not utter disappointment but just disappointment, frustration a little bit that I wasn’t better recognized,” Kent said.

Kent was drafted by Toronto and four months after his debut was traded to the Mets for David Cone, who helped the Blue Jays win the World Series.

“The rap for me probably started out in the wrong direction in New York,” Kent said. “There was this perception when I left New York and came to the West Coast that 'he wasn't a good middle infielder,' and that was so false.”

His biggest regret is not winning a World Series.

“I missed out on the one opportunity of the most fun ever, which is sitting on the floor in the locker room after you just won the last game of the season,” he said. "You’re done throwing the Champagne on everybody, you’re done bragging about everything, you’re done doing the interviews and you’re just filthy dirty and wet, and you just sit on the floor and have this moment of completeness."

The Hall in 2022 restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on, as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.

Each committee meets every three years. Contemporary managers, executives and umpires will be considered in December 2026, classic era candidates in December 2027 and contemporary era players again in December 2028.

Under a change announced by the Hall last March, candidates who received fewer than five votes are not eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.

The December 2027 vote is the first chance for Pete Rose to appear on a Hall ballot after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred decided in May that Rose’s permanent suspension ended with his death in September 2024. The Hall prohibits anyone on the permanent ineligible list from appearing on a ballot.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Jeff Kent poses for photos after the announcement at a news conference that he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame during the Major League baseball winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jeff Kent answers questions after the announcement at a news conference that he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame during the Major League baseball winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

FILE - San Francisco Giants Livan Hernandez, left, and Jeff Kent react after the Anaheim Angels Garret Anderson hit a three run RBI double in the third inning during game 7 of the World Series in Anaheim, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2002. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers Jeff Kent hits a two-run home run against the San Francisco Giants in the fourth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Sept. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”

The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the U.S.-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.

Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.

“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.

Trump's comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran.

Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”

“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”

The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.

Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the U.S. increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.

After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.

The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.

Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday for Britain's reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said, blasting Britain’s reluctance to let U.S. warplanes use its bases.

Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.

The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”

“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.

But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”

Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.

He said Berlin wants to work with the U.S. on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.

“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”

Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.

The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.

“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.

AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Fatima Hussein and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump, right, talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)