Carlos Beltran is carrying the Yankees offense right now
The best hitter on the New York Yankees this season — the team with the second highest payroll in the big leagues — is a 39-year-old who can often get lost in the constant talk about A-Rod and the latest injury news for Mark Teixeira.
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You hesitate to call a 39-year-old a spark plug, but that’s just what Carlos Beltran has been for the Yankees this season, leading their offense in many key categories and looking especially hot at the plate the past month. That includes two homers in his past two games, as the Yankees have beat the Los Angeles Angels twice.
Can they make it three? You can find out yourself right here on Yahoo Sports, where the Angels and Yankees meet in our MLB Free Game of the Day. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET. You can stream the game for free on Yahoo’s Sports Home, MLB index and video home. Local blackouts apply, per MLB rules.
The Yankees aren’t very good this season (28-30, fourth in the AL West) and that’s especially true on offense, where they rank in the bottom third of the league in hits, run, batting average and on-base percentage.
Without Beltran they’d be much worse. The Yankees have hit 60 homers as a team, ninth worst in MLB, but if you take away Beltran’s 15 (by far the most on the team) they’d have fewer homers than every team that’s not the Atlanta Braves.
Beltran leads the Yanks in homers (15), RBIs (38) and slugging percentage (.549) — all by a wide margin. The 15 homers are equal to his 2014 total, in about half the games, and close to his 2015 total of 19. Not bad for a 39-year-old.
This has all been more important because A-Rod and Teixeira have been either injured or ineffective most of the season. In the last month, Beltran has been hitting particularly well: 11 homers, 26 RBIs and a 1.062 OPS that is actually eighth in all of baseball in that time.
Watch out, David Ortiz, you’re not the only old guy raking this season.
Beltran’s success and his expiring contract have New York writers thinking he’s played his way into being a trade candidate. While a team wouldn’t necessarily want to take another year of a $15 million Carlos Beltran, they want him for a couple months. Especially if they need a veteran DH. If Beltran is hitting and the Yankees are out of it in July, we could see him wearing his seventh different uniform in 19 seasons.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
