Texas Rangers: Adrian Beltre To Begin Season on Disabled List
By Tim Boyle
A calf injury will force Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre to the disabled list to start the 2017 season.
The Texas Rangers will be without Adrian Beltre on Opening Day 2017. A tight right calf will keep the veteran third baseman sidelined through at least April 9th when he will be eligible to return from the disabled list.
For the first time since 2001, Beltre will not play on Opening Day. At nearly 38-years-old, he has been extremely healthy throughout his 19-year MLB career. Since debuting in 1998, Beltre has never played in fewer than 111 games. He has now logged a total of 2,720 which leads all active players. So, even at this age for him to miss any time at all, comes as a surprise.
Along with entering his 20th season in MLB, Beltre is also about to begin his seventh with the Rangers. Since joining them in 2011 he has gone from really good to great and pretty much locked up a place in Cooperstown when it’s all over with. He is 58 hits shy of 3,000 and 55 home runs away from reaching 500. These terrific totals don’t even account for his tremendous defense which has continued into his late 30s. Last season was a great example of how well he can still play as he finished seventh in the MVP voting and won a Gold Glove.
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Minus Beltre, the Rangers will go with Joey Gallo at third base to start the year. There’s little chance Beltre receives the Wally Pipp treatment as they have plenty of opportunities for Gallo to get his at-bats if he does indeed figure out MLB pitchers. Gallo has been notably bad when facing big league pitchers with only a .173 batting average in his first 153 plate appearances. Far worse than this is the fact that he has struck out in more than half of his official at-bats.
Beltre currently has two more years on his contract with the Rangers. Keeping him healthy is a big priority. The contract pays him $18 million in each of those remaining seasons. After that, someone like Gallo would take over at the hot corner full-time.
Since Beltre is expected to miss only about a week of the season it’s wise for the Rangers to let their third baseman heal. He won’t be alone on the disabled list. Eight other Rangers are currently there waiting. This includes new pitchers Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross.
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Replacing Beltre on the roster is prospect Drew Robinson. The 24-year-old outfielder hit with some really nice power last year at Triple-A and could see limited action until Beltre returns.