Beltran’s Nice, But Not the Answer
St. Louis, Mo – The St. Louis Cardinals have signed Carlos Beltran to a two year deal totaling $26 million ($13 million per year) with a full no-trade clause.
On the surface of this deal, the Birds appear to be getting a stellar six time All-Star outfielder who can step in and relieve stress off of young players such as Jon Jay and the injured Allen Craig. Dig a little deeper, however, and this appears to be a rather lopsided deal in favor of Mr. Beltran.
While he hit .300 last year with 22 home runs and 84 RBI’s in 142 games, the fact of the matter is that he’s an aging, injury prone player. The soon to be 35 year old outfielder (April 24) played just 64 games in 2010 and 81 games during his 2009 All-Star season.
There is little to no doubt that Beltran will be able to put up impressive numbers when he takes to the plate. He’s a .283 career hitter who has averaged an extremely respectable 28 long balls and 105 RBI’s during his tenure in the big leagues. In addition to his six all-star appearances, he was the recipient of the 1999 Rookie of the Year award, two consecutive Silver Slugger awards in 2006 and 2007, as well as demonstrating laudable fielding skills winning three straight Gold Gloves between 2006 and 2008.
The problem is keeping Beltran healthy so he can achieve these impressive numbers.
Say that Beltran repeated his 142 game day appearances last year for the course of his contract in St. Louis; that would mean out of a possible 324 games, Beltran would only appear in 284 of them (87.7 percent).
While the Cardinals may have slightly overpaid for the graying bat of Carlos Beltran at that $13 million average over two years, the disturbing item in his contract is the no-trade clause because of that injury history that has plagued him and the potential for the aforementioned probable number of appearances in 2011 and 2012.
The Cardinals could find them in a position this upcoming season with a great piece of trade bait and have the opportunity to acquire a few more talented, young players in return for Beltran just to have the potential opportunity foiled by a rather absurd no-trade clause. The idea of placing such a stipulation into a two year contract when a player is on the downwards slope of his career is incredibly alarming.
If Beltran continues his tradition of getting hurt as he ages, despite the numbers he may put up when healthy, the signing could be looked at as nothing short of a bust considering the player he was brought into replace in Albert Pujols.
Win or lose, this is a risky deal for the Cardinals with the only guaranteed benefactor being Mr. Carlos Beltran.
Instead, the Cardinals could use the money they allotted for Carlos Beltran towards Prince Fielder, who should, realistically, dial in around the $20 to $22 million mark after the rather conservative contract signed by Pujols. “Conservative contract” is obviously a relative term used in perspective of the ridiculous deals signed by the likes of Alex Rodriguez (10 years for $275 million, $27.5 million average) and Ryan Howard (5 years for $125 million a year, $25 million average) among others when compared to the consistent numbers achieved by the former Cardinal and his deal of 10 years for $254 million dollars.
One potential reason for the signing of Carlos Beltran, and hopefully the reason for the two year section of the contract, is that the Cincinnati Red’s Joey Votto is set to become a free agent after the 2013 season. Votto has placed second in Rookie of the Year voting, been named to two All-Star teams, and won a Gold Glove during his short four year tenure in the majors. While his value will certainly go up by the time the end of the 2013 season rolls around, he is certainly a legitimate long-term choice for the Cardinals.
On the pitching side of things, there have been some big names available that St. Louis has failed to tempt to the Gateway City. CJ Wilson, Roy Oswalt, and Mark Buehrle have all been available this off-season but the Cardinals are still stuck with the over-bearing contracts of Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse.
Cardinals fans should have high expectations of Carlos Beltran when he is on the field or at the plate but not be disappointed when an injury finds its way to the bones of the newly named Cardinal. They should also realize that Beltran is far from “the answer” for a nation of fans who were left with a whole in there heart after the departure of Pujols.
Beltran is simply a pawn in what is hopefully a bigger scheme for the Cardinals organization.
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Can disagree with your comments more.
#1. No one sees Beltran as the “answer” for losing Pujols. To suggest so is absolutely absurd. That being said, Wainwright coming back, a chance to have Furcal’s defense for a full year, Craig’s bat in the lineup, Freese not being in car accidents and not dropping weights on his feet and getting 600 plate appearances in COMBINED with signing Beltran is MORE than enough to make up for Alberts numbers.
#2. “injury history that has plagued him”. What? Did you research for this article before writing it? From 2001 – 2008 he averaged OVER 650 PA’s per year. Before he got hurt in 2009, he was on course for close to 700 PA’s. He got hurt, missed the rest of 2009. Then had miro-fracture surgery in 2010 and then came back the second half of the season. Then had 600 PA’s last year and hit .300. What injuries beside his knee injury that took him a year to fix is in his “history”???
#3. Overbearing contract of Kyle Lohse? 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA equates to roughly $11.1 million dollars in MLB averages. He made a little over that last year. For our #4 guy, that is a HELL of a pitcher. And I’d put Westbrook at only 8mil a year as our #5 starter up against any other #5 starter in the league.
It’s definitely a colorful rant you put up. Problem is that it’s not very well informed.
Dan