Beltran, Ventura and Yost headline latest Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame ballot

The latest group of candidates for the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame includes the winningest and longest-tenured manager in franchise history, a former AL Rookie of the Year and a rising star pitcher who died before the prime of his life.

The Royals announced the start of the 2023 Royals Hall of Fame voting on Tuesday. The online voting portion will remain open through Tuesday, January 3, at 11:59 p.m. CT at www.royals.com/hofvote.

The candidates on the 2023 Royals Hall of Fame ballot are: outfielder Carlos Beltrán (1998-2004), outfielder/designated hitter Billy Butler (2007-2014), outfielder Johnny Damon (1995-2000), pitcher Jason Vargas (2014-2017), pitcher Yordano Ventura (2013-2016) and manager Ned Yost (2010-2019).

Yost, who retired at the end of the 2019 season, won a franchise-record 746 games as the club’s skipper. The first Royals manager to guide the club to multiple World Series appearances, Yost led Kansas City to back-to-back appearances in 2014 and 2015 and a World Series championship in 2015.

Yost went 746-839 in 1,585 regular season games and 351-297 from 2013-16. He posted a 22-9 postseason record (.710 winning percentage) with KC.

Beltran, a second-round pick of the Royals in the 1995 MLB Draft out of high school in Puerto Rico, made his debut late in the 1998 season. He spent parts of seven seasons with the Royals and slashed .287/.352/.483 with 324 extra-base hits, 123 home runs, 516 RBIs and 164 stolen bases in 795 games in his career with KC.

Beltran won the AL Rookie of the Year in 1999, and he batted above .300 for two seasons (2001 and 2003).

Ventura, an electric young ace pitcher who was a crucial part of the postseason runs in 2014 and 2015, died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic in 2016. He was 25.

In his brief but impactful career, Ventura won 11 games or more in each of his three full seasons in the majors (2014-16). He posted a 38-31 career record with a 3.89 ERA, with a strikeout rate of 7.7 strikeouts per 9 innings and a walk rate of 3.5 walks per 9 innings in 94 games (93 starts).

Ventura registered 10 strikeouts or more in a start five times in his career. He still holds the distinction of having thrown more pitches of at least 100 mph as a starter than any other Royals pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). He threw 135 pitches with triple-digit velocity in the 2014 season.

Ventura made 10 postseason appearances (nine starts), including two starts in the 2014 World Series (both Royals wins) and a start in the 2015 World Series. He went 1-2 in the postseason with a 4.66 ERA.

Butler, a first-round pick of the Royals in 2004 (14th overall), played 1,166 of his 1,414 career games in the majors with KC. He posted a slash line of .295/.359/.449 with 1,479 hits and 127 home runs,

He batted .300 or better in three seasons. In 2012, Butler earned his lone All-Star Game selection, won the AL Silver Slugger as a DH and captured the Edgar Martinez Award as the best designated hitter in the majors.

Butler ranks among the franchise’s top 10 all-time in home runs, RBIs, hits, career batting average, doubles, walks, extra-base hits, total bases and OPS.

Damon, a first-round pick of the Royals in 1992, made his debut in 1995. In 803 games, he slashed .292/.351/.438 with 156 stolen bases. He stole 25 bases or more four times. Damon led the AL in runs scored (136) and stolen bases (46) in 2000. He also recorded a 200-hit season in 2000, and he set franchise single-season records for runs scored and four-hit games (nine) that season.

Damon also ranks among the franchise’s all-time top 10 in triples, batting average, stolen bases and grand slams.

Vargas went 34-23 with a 3.88 ERA and a 2.63-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 74 starts for the Royals. He went 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA in three postseason starts for KC in 2014. He suffered a torn ULC that halted his 2015 season and kept him from pitching in that postseason.

An All-Star for the Royals in 2017, he led the majors with 18 wins that season. He went 18-11 with a 4.16 ERA in 32 starts (179 2/3 innings). That 18-win season is tied for the 10th-highest single-season win total by a Royals pitcher in franchise history.

Hall of Fame selection

The Royals Hall of Fame selection process includes two phases. In odd-numbered years such as 2023, the “regular phase” focuses on eligible former players and managers. In even-numbered years, the “veterans committee phase” considers both non-field personnel and candidates who previously received Royals Hall of Fame votes but are no longer eligible in that phase.

First-time eligibility requirements include having been active with the ballclub for at least three seasons and compiled a minimum of 1,500 plate appearances or 300 innings pitched or managed the equivalent of three full seasons. They also must have been inactive for the Royals or any other MLB club for at least three calendar years.

Along with fan voting, all living members of the Royals Hall of Fame and the members of the Royals Hall of Fame Executive Board, select members of the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Kansas City media representatives, and current Royals front office staff with 15 years of service or more will participate in the voting process.

The first inductees were outfielder Amos Otis and pitcher Steve Busby in 1986. Subsequent inductees were pitcher Paul Splittorff, second baseman Cookie Rojas, manager Dick Howser, pitcher Dennis Leonard, designated hitter Hal McRae, shortstop Fred Patek, club president Joe Burke, pitcher Larry Gura, Royals founders Ewing and Muriel Kauffman, third baseman George Brett, second baseman Frank White, first baseman John Mayberry, pitcher Dan Quisenberry, manager Whitey Herzog, center fielder Willie Wilson, pitcher Jeff Montgomery, broadcaster Denny Matthews, pitcher Bret Saberhagen, pitcher Mark Gubicza, scout Art Stewart, pitcher Kevin Appier, groundskeeper George Toma and first baseman Mike Sweeney.