I would be on the side that says no it shouldn't, but I think for a sport as steeped in numbers as baseball there will always be certain numbers that are just equated with greatness, whether it was 2,999 or 3,000 Clemente was the same player. I only pick Clemente because he was exactly on the number. I really like the McGriff to Beltre comparison. Two guys who were consistently among the best at their position for almost their entire career but never the best for an extended period of time, one will likely get in and one may not. I guess it's a good example of the line has to be drawn somewhere and apparently it's just north of a Tom Emansky defensive drills tape.
The Beltre comparison with McGriff is interesting. I think McGriff might eventually get into the HOF through the veterans committee but his below average defense doesn't help his borderline HOF stats for a 1B. In comparison, Beltre's above average defense at 3B combined with the magic number of 3,000 hits and borderline HOF offensive stats makes him a lock.
The triple crown stats for their careers are so similar. Beltre is at 0.286/453/1602 while McGriff ended at 0.284/493/1550. Looking at OPS+ favors McGriff with 134 versus Beltre at 116. Of course Beltre is closing in on 3000 hits while McGriff had 2,490. And neither player has much when looking at the yearly league leaders. Using bWAR, Beltre is at 92.1 while McGriff 52.4 which illustrates the value in Beltre playing 3B with above average defense.