Yankees' Beltran wants to play through 2018
After this season, Carlos Beltran will have banked over $200 million playing baseball in his MLB career. The eight-time All-Star has played in the World Series — though he has never won it — and will have played in 18 seasons. After finishing up his age-39 season in 2016, his three-year deal with the Yankees will expire. Might he retire?
Not unless he’s forced into it, from the sounds of things.
“My goal is to play 20 years,” he said Friday, per ESPN New York. “I would love to play 20 years in the big leagues. So that means two more years if possible.”
The best guess is this willl be his last year with the Yankees. He’s at the point where he isn’t too mobile in right field due to age and long-time issues with his knees, so he probably needs a DH slot. Alex Rodriguez is still under contract with the Yankees for another year, and after that they might need the DH for Brian McCann.
Still, if Beltran hits this season like he did last year — .276/.337/.490 (122 OPS+) with 34 doubles and 19 homers — it seems likely he’ll have a shot to DH somewhere in 2017.
Also interesting here are the counting stats on Beltran’s Hall of Fame résumé. He seems a borderline Hall candidate right now in the regular season — and then add in a ridiculous .332/.441/.674 line in 52 postseason games (16 HRs and 40 RBI, too).
Beltran sits at 392 career homers, so another three seasons easily gets him over 400, and maybe he gets hot enough to hit 450. Even 425-plus helps with his 311 career steals and excellent defense in center field for a while. He’s also sitting at 503 doubles, which is 57th all-time, so getting into the top 50 there surely would help.
With 2,454 career hits, 3,000 is out of reach, but getting close would help his cause. How about the 1,449 runs and 1,443 RBI? Only 32 players in MLB history have more than 1,500 runs and RBI. They are all either in the Hall of Fame, headed that way (Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols) or have a PED cloud hanging over their head (Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, etc.).
This is all stuff to keep in mind as Beltran plays out the remainder of his great career, whether he has one, two or three years left.
Carlos Beltran isn’t ready to call it a career just yet. (USATSI)
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