COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Carlos Beltrán will have a New York Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, Andruw Jones will have an Atlanta Braves hat and Jeff Kent will have a San Francisco Giants logo.
The hall announced its decisions Tuesday, two weeks after Beltrán and Jones were elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Kent was voted to the hall in December by the contemporary era committee.
Inductions will take place on July 26.
A nine-time All-Star center fielder, the switch-hitting Beltrán batted .279 with 435 homers and 1,587 RBIs over 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, ’17), the Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016). He earned five All-Star selections and three Gold Gloves with the Mets.
“With the Mets, I experienced my greatest individual growth and success," Beltrán said in a statement released by the hall. “I’m honored that my Hall of Fame plaque will feature the Mets logo.”
Jones batted .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). The center fielder finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League from 2013-14. He earned all five of his All-Star selections and all 10 of his Gold Gloves with the Braves.
“The Braves were the team that gave me my first opportunity to chase the dream I wanted since I was a little kid,” Jones said in a statement. “I am proud to wear the ‘A’ on my plaque.”
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 six seasons with the Giants were his most with a big league team.
“Each of the stops along my career path was important to me, but it was with the Giants where I had the most success and spent the most time during my career,” Kent said.
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FILE - San Francisco Giants' Jeff Kent watches his two run home run off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Mike Hampton during the third inning of a baseball game at Coors Field in Denver, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey, File)
FILE - Atlanta Braves' Andruw Jones watches his home run in front of New York Yankees' catcher Jim Leyritz in the second inning of the World Series on Oct. 20, 1996, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - New York Mets' Carlos Beltran hits s three-run home run off Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Adam Eaton durinf the fifth inning of a baseball game at Shea Stadium in New York, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday, threatening to ramp up tensions as the Trump administration warns of possible military action to get Iran to the negotiating table.
The drone “aggressively approached” the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” and kept flying toward it "despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement.
The shootdown occurred within hours of Iranian forces harassing a U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the American military said.
The developments could escalate the heightened tensions between the longtime adversaries as President Donald Trump has threatened to use military action first over Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests and then to try to get the country to make a deal over its nuclear program. Trump's Republican administration has built up military forces in the region, sending the aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers, air defense assets and more to supplement its presence.
The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln, which was sailing about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Iran’s southern coast, Hawkins said. No American troops were harmed, and no U.S. equipment was damaged, the military’s statement noted.
Talks between special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials are still planned, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“President Trump is always wanting to pursue diplomacy first, but obviously it takes two to tango,” Leavitt said. She added, “As always, though, of course, the president has a range of options on the table with respect to Iran.”
Hours before the drone was shot down, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on Telegram that he had spoken with his counterparts in Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Oman regarding regional developments and the importance of protecting “regional stability and security.”
After the shootdown, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces harassed the merchant vessel Stena Imperative, the U.S. military said. Two boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the ship “at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins’ statement said.
The destroyer USS McFaul responded and escorted the Stena Imperative “with defensive air support from the U.S. Air Force,” the statement said, adding that the merchant vessel was now sailing safely.
Tensions began to rise again between the U.S. and Iran as the Islamic Republic spent weeks quelling protests that began in late December against growing economic instability before broadening into a challenge to the country's ruling theocracy.
Trump had promised in early January to “rescue” Iranians from their government's protest crackdown before starting to pressure Tehran again to make a deal over its nuclear program. That is even as the Republican president insists Iranian nuclear sites were “obliterated” in U.S. strikes in June.
“We have talks going on with Iran. We’ll see how it all works out,” Trump told reporters Monday. Asked what his threshold was for military action against Iran, he declined to elaborate.
“I’d like to see a deal negotiated,” Trump said. “Right now, we’re talking to them, we’re talking to Iran, and if we could work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things would happen.”
Iran’s president said Tuesday that he instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the U.S., marking one of the first clear signs from Tehran that it wants to try to negotiate with Washington despite a breakdown of talks last summer.
Turkey had been working behind the scenes to make the talks happen there later this week as Witkoff is traveling in the region. A Turkish official later said the location of talks was uncertain but that Turkey was ready to support the process.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has been moving a growing number of assets into the region over the past several weeks, including the Lincoln and several destroyers, which arrived last week.
The carrier strike group, which brought roughly 5,700 additional service members, joined three destroyers and three littoral combat ships that were already in the region.
Analysts of flight-tracking data also have noticed dozens of U.S. military cargo planes heading to the region.
The activity is similar to last year when the U.S. moved in air defense hardware, like a Patriot missile system, in anticipation of an Iranian counterattack following the U.S. bombing three key nuclear sites. Iran launched more than a dozen missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar days after the strikes.
The U.S. has several bases in the Middle East, including Al Udeid, which hosts thousands of American troops and is the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command.
Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
FILE - The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
