Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones appear on track to gain election to the Baseball Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — Center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones appear on track to gain election to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday when voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America is announced.

As of Monday evening, Beltrán had been picked on 89.2% of the 223 ballots revealed early and tabulated on Ryan Thibodaux's online vote-tracker, just over half of the estimated total submitted. Jones was at 83%, like Beltrán well over the 75% needed for induction to the shrine in Cooperstown, New York.

Making his fourth ballot appearance, Beltrán has moved up steadily from 46.5% in 2023 to 57.1% the following year and 70.3% in 2025, when he fell 19 votes short as Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected.

Jones is on the ballot for the ninth of a maximum 10 times. He received just 7.3% in his first appearance in 2018 — his 31 ballots were just over the 22 needed to remain eligible for future BBWAA votes. He didn't get half the total until receiving 58.1% in 2023, then increased to 61.6% and 66.2%, falling 35 votes short in 2025.

Anyone elected would be inducted on July 26 along with second baseman Jeff Kent, voted in last month by the contemporary era committee after he received a peak of 46.5% of votes from the BBWAA during his time on the ballot from 2014-23.

BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years in the organization were eligible to vote.

A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán hit .279 with 435 homers and 1,587 RBIs over 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, '17), the New York Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016).

He was the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year and won three Gold Gloves, also hitting .307 in the postseason with 16 homers and 42 RBIs in 65 games.

Beltrán was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then fired on Jan. 16 without having managed a game, three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in a report by Major League Baseball regarding the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series championship.

“We all did what we did. Looking back today, we were wrong,” Beltrán said on a YES Network broadcast in 2022, after he was hired as an analyst. "I wish I would’ve asked more questions about what we were doing. I wish the organization would’ve said to us, `Hey man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this.'”

Jones hit .254 with 434 homers, 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17 seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009), the Chicago White Sox (2010) and the Yankees (2011-12). He finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan's Pacific League from 2013-14.

His batting average would be the second-lowest for a position player voted to the Hall of Fame, just above the .253 of Ray Schalk, a superior defensive catcher, and just below the .256 of Harmon Killebrew, who hit 573 homers.

A five-time All-Star, Jones earned 10 Gold Gloves.

In the 1996 World Series opener at Yankee Stadium, at 19 years, 5 months, Jones became the youngest player to homer in a Series game, beating Mickey Mantle’s old mark by 18 months. Going deep against Andy Pettitte in the second inning and Brian Boehringer in the third of a 12-1 rout, Jones became the second player to homer in his first two Series at-bats after Gene Tenace in 1972.

Chase Utley (68.2%), Pettitte (57.4%) and Félix Hernández (56.5%) were the only other candidates to get at least half the votes revealed on the tracker before the announcement.

Utley was on the ballot for the third time after getting 28.8% and then 39.8% last year, and Hernández received 20.6% last year in his first ballot appearance.

Pettitte, on the ballot for the eighth time, has moved up substantially. He got 9% in his initial appearance in 2019, 13.5% in 2024 and 27.9% last year.

Cole Hamels at 31.4% had the highest total among a dozen newcomers on the 27-man ballot.

Alex Rodriguez (43% in fifth appearance) and Manny Ramirez (40.4% in 10th appearance) are well shy. Both served suspensions for performance-enhancing drug violations.

Buster Posey and Jon Lester are the top first-time candidates on the 2027 BBWAA ballot, followed by Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in 2028, and Miguel Cabrera, Zack Greinke and Joey Votto in 2029.

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

FILE - Former Atlanta Braves player Andruw Jones walks on the field as his number is retired Sept. 9, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Carlos Beltran smiles during an introductory baseball news conference in New York, Nov. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - The Netherlands' designated hitter Andruw Jones (25) tries to dodge Korea's catcher Kang Minho (47) on home plate in the fourth inning of a World Baseball Classic first-round game at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan, March 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Wally Santana, File)

FILE - New York Mets right fielder Carlos Beltran lunges for the ball during the third inning of an MLB baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, April 22, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government on Tuesday approved a huge new Chinese Embassy in central London, despite strong criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum that it could become a base for espionage and intimidation of opponents.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed formally signed off on plans for the building near the Tower of London, after years of delays and legal challenges.

Critics have long expressed concerns that the supersized embassy, set to be the biggest Chinese Embassy in Europe, will heighten risks of Chinese intelligence-gathering as well as amplify the threat of surveillance and intimidation of Chinese dissidents in exile.

The heads of two U.K. spy agencies said that while it's not realistic to eliminate all risk, appropriate “security mitigations” were in place.

Plans for the embassy have been plagued by objections and protests since 2018, when China’s government bought the site at Royal Mint Court, where Britain's money was once made, for 225 million pounds (around $300 million.)

Opponents say the huge site sits too close to underground fiber optic cables carrying sensitive financial information between London’s two main financial districts. British media have reported that the 20,000 square-meter (a215,278 square-foot) complex would include 208 secret basement rooms close to the data cables.

Dissidents have been among those who have protested the plans, saying a mega embassy housing large numbers of officials would further China’s repression of activists abroad.

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, joined hundreds of protesters who chanted “no China mega embassy” at the site Sunday.

Many critics argued that approving the embassy was a mistake that went beyond security at the building — they say it sends a signal that Britain was bowing to pressure from Beijing.

Conservative foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said that “Keir Starmer has sold off our national security to the Chinese Communist Party with his shameful super embassy surrender.”

Local residents said they were “determined to keep fighting today's decision” and planned to challenge the approval in the courts.

Helena Kennedy, a human rights lawyer and Labour Party member of the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament, said that the decision was a dangerous step.

“We cannot reinforce the dangerous notion that Britain will continue to make concessions — such as granting a mega embassy — without reciprocity or regard for the rule of law,” she said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has repeatedly postponed its decision in recent months after multiple cases of alleged Chinese spying and political interference underlined concerns about the proposed embassy.

In November, the domestic intelligence agency MI5 issued an alert to lawmakers warning that Chinese agents were making “targeted and widespread” efforts to recruit and cultivate them using LinkedIn or cover companies.

Beijing has strongly denied those claims, calling them “pure fabrication and malicious slander.”

The heads of the domestic security service MI5 and the electronic intelligence agency GCHQ said in a letter to ministers that “as with any foreign embassy on U.K. soil, it is not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk.”

“However, the collective work across U.K. intelligence agencies and (government) departments to formulate a package of national security mitigations for the site has been, in our view, expert, professional and proportionate,” MI5 chief Ken McCallum and GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler said.

They said there were “clear security advantages” to consolidating China’s current seven diplomatic premises in London onto one site.

The government said that “no bodies with responsibility for national security ... have raised concerns or objected to the proposal on the basis of the proximity of the cables or other underground infrastructure.”

Starmer has stressed that while protecting national security is nonnegotiable, Britain needs to keep up diplomatic dialogue and cooperation with the Asian superpower.

The approval is widely expected to pave the way for a long-anticipated trip by Starmer to China, and an expansion of the U.K. Embassy in Beijing. The closely watched visit would be the first made by a British prime minister since 2018.

China has complained about the seven-year delay in approving the project, saying the U.K. was “constantly complicating and politicizing the matter.”

Demonstrators hold placards and flags as they attend a protest against the proposed Chinese embassy, in London, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to welcome President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia and after Britain's government has approved a massive new Chinese Embassy in central London in London, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Demonstrators hold placards and flags as they attend a protest against the opening of the new Chinese embassy, in London, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A general view of Royal Mint Court where is planning site for the new London Chinese embassy, near London's financial district, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)