Adrian Beltre We Hardly Knew You

On Sunday afternoon, Adrian Beltre cemented his ticket into the Hall of Fame after recording his 3,000th hit.

As a Red Sox fan, there can only be one thought: frustration.

You have to be frustrated that the Sox allowed Beltre to walk and sign with the Texan Rangers after a phenomenal year with Boston in 2010.

In 2010, Beltre signed with the Sox after playing for Seattle for five seasons and the Dodgers for seven years to begin his career.

In 2009, Beltre had arguably the worst season of his career with the Mariners. He hit just .265 with 8 home runs and 44 RBI’s. He was also hurt and only played 111 out of 162 games.

In 2010, Beltre had, what one would call, a “bounce back year.”

I would say so.

That year, Beltre hit .321 with 28 home runs, 102 RBI’s and a career-high 49 doubles. He also played gold glove type defense.

It was an MVP quality year.

For whatever godforsaken reason, the Sox did not re-sign Beltre. Maybe they thought he could not play as well as he did?

Well, Texas did not have these fears and they signed Beltre to a 6 year, $96 million deal.

A statement that is not said enough lately with the Red Sox, Beltre actually lived up to the contract.

Because Beltre played so well for the Rangers during the deal, they then signed him to a two-year contract extension last year to a $36 million deal.

With Texas, in almost seven seasons, Beltre has averaged hitting .305 with 27 home runs and 94 RBI’s. For $16 million per year, I would say Beltre was worth the investment.

Since 2011, the Red Sox have had a number of different third basemen. Those include Kevin Youkilis, Xander Bogaerts, Will Middlebrooks, Brock Holt, dare I say Pablo Sandoval, and a variety of others.

Some of those players had good production, such as Youkilis and Bogaerts. But Beltre has put up big consistent numbers for seven seasons.

The Red Sox surely could have used that middle of the order bat at third base, especially in the last few years.

Although Rafael Devers has provided a spark lately, before his call-up, the third base position was an absolute disaster.

The main guy who started the crisis was Mr. Panda himself, Pablo Sandoval.

In 2015, the Sox signed Panda to a five year, $95 million deal, eerily similar to Beltre’s contract with the Rangers. The big difference is that Panda was a career .275 hitter with 15 home runs. He did have great postseason success, but his numbers were nowhere close to that of Adrian Beltre’s.

I don’t have to be the one to tell you that the Pablo Sandoval deal was terrible. But when you compare his contract to Beltre’s, it makes the deal look even worse.

In this decade, letting Beltre walk was one of the worst moves by the Red Sox organization.

It is easy to think about the all of the success Beltre could have had for the Red Sox. Instead of receiving a standing ovation at Fenway for his 3,000th hit in a Red Sox uniform on Sunday, he was wearing the blue and red for the Rangers.

Beltre will go down as a first ballot Hall of Famer when his career ends. There are many moves that the Red Sox regret over the years, but not resigning Beltre has to be at the top of the list.