The Latin Baseball Hall of Fame, translated to the Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Latino in Spanish, inducted five new members Monday at a Punta Cana, Dominican Republic gala.
The members of the 11th class in the Latin Baseball Hall of Fame are starting pitcher Félix Hernández of Venezuela, outfielder Andruw Jones of Curacao, shortstop and third baseman Alex Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic, second baseman and outfielder Alfonso Soriano of the Dominican Republic, and starting pitcher Johan Santana of Venezuela. Rodriguez was born in New York, but his parents are from the Dominican Republic.
“We have a group of players who represented excellence and nothing more than excellence at the top,” Don Roberto Weill, President of the Latin Baseball Hall of Fame, said in a statement on the Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Latino website when the 11th class was revealed in July. “Players who not only had to be here but who also deserve a very earned place in Cooperstown. It’ll be a great year to magnify Latin baseball.”
Jones received the highest vote total from the voting committee, 16, followed by Santana, 12; Rodriguez and Hernández, 11; and Soriano, 10. The voting committee members are baseball journalists and analysts, some of whom are from the Baseball Writers Association of America. The countries from which the voters come include Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Nicaragua.
All five players in the 2024 Latin American Baseball Hall of Fame class played 12 or more seasons in Major League Baseball. Alex Rodriguez, a former three-time American League MVP, played the most years of anyone in the class, 22. The five played in a combined 36 All-Star Games, but Rodriguez is the only player to win a World Series championship in 2009 with the New York Yankees.
In international competition, Jones (Netherlands), Santana (Venezuela), and Rodriguez and Soriano (Dominican Republic) all played in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, the first edition of the tournament. Hernández represented Venezuela in the 2009 and 2017 editions of the WBC.
Three of the five players inducted into this year’s Latin Baseball Hall of Fame are on the 2025 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame ballot. Jones returns for his eighth year on the ballot after receiving a 61.6 percent vote in 2024. Candidates need a 75 percent vote to be elected. Rodriguez will appear on the ballot for a fourth year after receiving a 34.8 percent vote in 2024. Hernández will appear on the ballot for the first time in 2025.
Santana received 2.4 percent of the vote in 2018, below the five percent needed to remain on the ballot. Soriano received a 1.5 percent vote in his first year on the ballot in 2020.
Latin Baseball Hall of Fame 10th Class
Last year’s Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Latino class included former MLB players David Oritz (Dominican Republic), Adrián Beltré (Dominican Republic), Bobby Abreu (Venezuela), Carlos Beltrán (Puerto Rico), and Manny Ramirez (Dominican Republic).
