How the Texas Rangers landed Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre

The third baseman spent eight seasons in Arlington and reached several career milestones, including his 3,000th career hit.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Before the 2023 World Series was secured, the Texas Rangers had never experienced the kind of baseball euphoria that swept through the Metroplex following the 2010 season.

They had just reached their first World Series, striking out Alex Rodriguez to clinch the trip. Sure, they lost the World Series to some manager named Bruce Bochy, but the club was riding high.

The Rangers had escaped bankruptcy in August thanks to an ownership group headed by Nolan Ryan. The Rangers still had that new ownership smell when free agency opened in November, and there seemed to be an eagerness to spend money for the first time since before former owner Tom Hicks’ finances collapsed.

Topping the wish list was re-signing left-hander Cliff Lee, the midseason trade acquisition who pitched so well in the postseason. The word was he wanted a five-year contract, and Ryan said in December at the winter meetings that he wasn’t sure he wanted to dole out that kind of money.

The Rangers offered it anyway, and Lee signed with the Phillies.

Plan B, it turned out, was a third baseman known more to some for his knack of putting together terrific seasons ahead of free agency rather than his productive bat and spectacular defense. There was that ruptured testicle thing, too.

The Rangers already had a third baseman, the face of their franchise, and they had just punted him to third base in 2009 to clear room for an up-and-coming shortstop. The decision, despite the ruffled feathers, worked out pretty well.

The decision to sign Adrian Beltre did, too, of course. He will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday on the strength of an eight-year Rangers run that saw him improve with age, gain universal respect throughout the game and endear himself to baseball fans.

But the signing required the ruffling of more feathers and a financial commitment that not all Rangers officials were comfortable making.

The walk-year thing

Beltre signed with the Dodgers as a 15-year-old from the Dominican Republic in 2004 and made his MLB debut in 1998. He famously tried to play in 2001 with a colostomy bag after a botched appendectomy.

His breakthrough season came in 2004, when he hit 48 home runs and finished second in National League MVP voting to Barry Bonds. The terrific season coincided with his first foray into free agency, and he struck it big in the offseason when he signed a five-year, $64 million deal with the Mariners.

The Seattle years weren’t awful (he hit for the cycle in 2008 against the Rangers), but they weren’t what he or the Mariners expected. When he hit free agency again after the 2009 campaign, he had to settle for a one-year, make-good deal with the Red Sox.

He made good, using the Green Monster to post a league-leading 49 doubles while also hitting 28 homers and batting .321.

“That year in Boston was huge,” Beltre said. “My last year in Seattle, I was coming off of an injury. I didn’t play a full season. I felt like if I showed teams I can be healthy, I might be in the best situation.”

Conveniently, he was a free agent again. The Rangers heard the talk about Beltre being a walk-year player, but they also saw much more in a player they started to pursue in earnest in the final week of 2010.

“There was some talk about that,” then-general manager Jon Daniels said. “If anything reservation-wise we had, it was more about age and he had some lower-body, leg stuff. We felt the risk was more about that. We weren’t worried what he was motivated by. That was pretty clear. This was a guy that was committed for the right reason.”

Beltre, though, didn’t initially consider the Rangers when free agency opened. He wanted to be comfortable, which Boston offered him, and he also wanted to be closer to home, which the Dodgers and Angels offered.

But he also wanted to win, and the Rangers just went to the World Series and could sell him on a promising future. He saw that countryman Vladimir Guerrero Sr. wasn’t going to be re-signed and also was following the Cliff Lee Sweepstakes. The Rangers had nabbed Lee from the Mariners in July and watched as he dominated his first three starts of the postseason to get the Rangers to the Fall Classic against Bochy’s Giants.

“I’ve got to be honest, it wasn’t a top-three team in the beginning,” Beltre said. “But I focused my search on a team that can get me a good chance to win a World Series. Obviously, the Rangers were one of the teams that just came back off the World Series.

“Once I saw that Vladimir was not going to sign back and the whole deal with Cliff Lee didn’t work out, they called and they showed interest. So I was definitely interested in the team. After that, everything moved smoothly, and we ended up agreeing to a contract that I was really happy with.”

Beltre collected 32 homers and 105 RBIs in only 124 games in 2011, dispelling the walk-year thing, and helped the Rangers reach the World Series for the second straight season. That marked the only time in Beltre’s career that he reached the World Series.

Done deal

Scott Boras was Beltre’s agent, and Rangers fans and some media were convinced that he possessed compromising photos of club brass to keep getting them to sign his clients. Chan Ho Park might have been the signing that broke the fans’ backs.

Boras has the reputation of telling his players to take the most lucrative deal, even if by only a dollar. He can be a meticulous negotiator, and his attention to detail can lead to some unnecessary billable hours for club attorneys. The past offseason notwithstanding, he typically has a solid feel for the market.

He wanted six years for Beltre after the Rangers entered the fray.

“When Boston traded for Adrian Gonzalez and moved [Kevin] Youkilis to third, it didn’t seem like they were a natural fit anymore,” Daniels said. “We felt like it was us and Anaheim. If we knew then what we knew now, we would have signed him to a 10-year deal.”

But Boras had some convincing to do. A sixth year would be the longest contract given by the Rangers, outside of the 10-year, $252 million deal Alex Rodriguez signed in 2001. Boras had to sell Ryan, the club president, that to get the player, sometimes a team had to go the extra year.

Once Lee went to Philadelphia, where his wife was more comfortable and where the doctors who treated his son’s cancer were located, the Rangers shifted gears to Beltre.

By the way, Michael Young had played two seasons at third base after he was moved before the 2009 season to create room for shortstop Elvis Andrus.

Beltre signed what Boras called a six-year, $96 million contract. The Rangers initially called it a five-year, $80 million deal with a vesting option for a sixth year.

“We dragged our feet,” Daniels said. “We didn’t want to do a sixth year. Obviously, looking back on it, it sounds ridiculous, but we could have risked it and could lost him had we not. I remember on New Year’s Eve talking to Scott, and we agreed to do a vesting sixth year, and that’s when it got done.”

Daniels then had to explain himself to Young. It went so well that Young requested to be traded, having felt like the team was dishonest with him. Young, though, never had any beef with Beltre.

“Before we played a game, we had gotten a lot better,” Young said. “You know who’s good. When you play with somebody, you gain a whole other level of respect for the way he doesn’t it.”

Beltre said Young was the first new teammate he called.

“I knew what Michael Young represented to the Rangers, and I didn’t want to create any conflict by coming to Texas to play third base,” Beltre said. “The way he talked to me was like, ‘Dude, we’re good. Come over. We need you. We’re going to win with you.’ Everything he said made me feel comfortable.”

With Young moving into a super-utility role that included ample time at first base and designated hitter, the Rangers boasted All-Stars at each infield spot. Signing Beltre also helped the Rangers acquire catcher Mike Napoli after the Angels traded him to Toronto for outfielder Vernon Wells.

The Blue Jays were happy to flip Napoli to the Rangers.

The Beltre signing, Young finding a happy place, the Napoli trade and a remarkable season by the rotation led the Rangers to another World Series. Beltre never left, and over eight seasons he became a Hall of Fame-caliber player.

“We were confident we were getting a really good player,” Daniels said. “I don’t know that we knew the level he would produce at. He exceeded expectations across the board. We knew defensively, we knew the makeup, but I think the offense, the level he reached with Boston, he maintained that the next eight years.”

The next eight years

A key piece of advice Beltre was given after signing with the Rangers was to be himself.

He had always had fun but didn’t always show it. Whether it was Young making him feel at home or Andrus being a pest, Beltre started to express himself on the field.

“When I was myself, I was able to enjoy the game and perform,” he said.

The funniest moment fans remember is when Beltre pulled the on-deck circle to him rather than moving to stand on it where it was. It led to his ejection by umpire Gerry Davis, but Beltre insisted Saturday that it wasn’t a prank.

“I was following directions,” he said.

Beltre and Andrus would mock fight for popups. If they weren’t “fighting” over it, one would fake catching a popup while the other actually secured it. In rundowns, Beltre was liable to run comically too far out of the baseline in an effort to get away. Of course, he always pointed to the first-base umpire if he checked his swing and would shuffle his feet in the batter’s box on an inside pitch.

“He had fun playing the game,” fellow 2024 inductee Todd Helton said. “He was a clown. He joked around, even with the other team. He was fun to play against.”

Beltre collected his 3,000th hit with the Rangers on July 30, 2017, the day Ivan Rodriguez was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of his 3,166 career hits, 1,277 came with the Rangers. Of his 477 career homers, 199 came with the Rangers, and he hit at least 30 homers four times.

His best Rangers season came in 2012, when he posted a .321/.359/.561 slash line with 36 home runs and 102 RBIs. He finished third in the MVP voting, and in 2013 he led the American League with 199 hits.

“We all knew how good he was going to be,” Andrus said. “If he stayed healthy, we knew he was going to be in the Hall of Fame. Even when he was not healthy, he would still play.”

Beltre famously played hurt while other players would need time on the injured list. He couldn’t avoid the IL entirely, like in 2015 when he tore ligaments in his thumb, but he returned sooner than anyone imagined by fashioning a swing that he thought would be good enough to help the Rangers.

He hit only 18 home runs that season, but five of them and 38 of his 83 RBIs came in the season’s final month as the Rangers tracked down to Astros to win the AL West.

Beltre felt that if he could play, even at less than full strength, he needed to be on the field.

“The way that I came to the big leagues is because someone else got hurt,” said Beltre, who made his MLB debut June 24, 1998, at age 19. “I always felt like any day could be my last. I felt like if I’m good enough to play, I am going to play. Lucky enough, I was able to learn how to play with injuries and, I don’t know how, but I was able to be decent and produce.”

He will take his place among baseball’s greats Sunday when he is enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His eight Rangers seasons put him over the top once his initial deal came together.

“It is an accomplishment that I never expected to have,” Beltre said. “The Rangers have been, since Day One since I got to the organization, class. It’s not been only with the fans and the front office, but the players. There’s nothing I can say bad about the Rangers.”

Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com