Carlos Beltran finally made his decision and signed a two year contract with the World Champion St Louis Cardinals. The deal is for $26 million and includes a full no trade clause, something that was very important to Beltran. How important? Beltran, who will be 35 in April, probably could have received a 3rd year from another team. But Beltran, who has been traded a couple of times in his career, would rather play for a championship caliber team and have control over whether (and to what team) he is traded.
Inevitably, once the Cardinals passed on Albert Pujols, you knew they would target Beltran as a key piece. The Cardinals have been pleasantly active since Pujols went to the Los Angeles Angels. Sometimes World Champions sit on their laurels or worse, they break apart the winning team. So far the Cardinals have signed a new manager, Mike Matheny, Rafael Furcal to play shortstop, JC Romero to be the left-handed setup man and, of course, Beltran to play right field. This signing allows The Cards to move Lance Berkman to first base to take over for the departed Pujols. The Cards are hardly sitting pat!
The overall defense of the Cards definitely takes a sizeable hit with Pujols being replaced by Berkman at first, though Beltran is probably an upgrade in right (even while wearing a knee brace). But, the lineup should remain unaffected in terms of its depth. Beltran really makes this lineup a deep one. With several players poised to play for a full season after battling injuries in 2011, the Cardinals lineup is shaping up to be one of the best in the NL. Many baseball analysts are projecting Beltran to bat second in the lineup, which makes no sense to me. Here’s how I would write out the lineup card myself:
1) Rafael Furcal (S) – SS – Career .282 Avg .348 OBP .408 SLG
2) Jon Jay (L) – CF – Career .298 Avg .350 OBP .423 SLG
3) Matt Holliday (R) – LF – Career .315 Avg .388 OBP .541 SLG
4) Lance Berkman (S) – 1B – Career .296 Avg .409 OBP .545 SLG
5) Carlos Beltran (S) – RF – Career .283 Avg .361 OBP .496 SLG
6) David Freese (R) – 3B – Career .298 Avg .354 OBP .429 SLG
7) Yadier Molina (R) – C – Career .274 Avg .331 OBP .377 SLG
8) Daniel Descalso (L) – 2B – Career .264 Avg .333 OBP .350 SLG
9) Pitcher
As you can see the lineup is very solid and deep. Freese is starting to come into his own and if he stays healthy all season should be an All-Star. I am not 100 percent sure Matheny will give the job outright to the young Descalso at 2nd, so there could be a few other players in the mix to get at bats there. Also, when Allen Craig comes back from his knee surgery in a month or two, it will allow the Cards to regularly rest Beltran and his balky knees.
The Cardinals have a great window of opportunity to keep winning over the next 2 years, so signing the expensive and aging Beltran to just two years makes a lot of sense. Furcal is an older shortstop at 34, Berkman is 35, Chris Carpenter, who carried them in last year’s playoffs, is 36, and 30 year old Adam Wainwright is only signed for the next two years.
Beltran is as clutch a post-season player as there is, having a .366 Avg, .485 OBP and a .817 SLG in 22 post-season games. WOW! And being a switch hitter in the middle of the lineup makes it much easier for Matheny. Anything that makes a rookie manager’s life easier helps, as he will have his hands full taking over a World Championship team from Tony LaRussa. Expectations are very high in St Louis even after Pujols’ departure.
Last season was an important one for Beltran, he proved his knees were healthy and that he still could produce offensively. He hit .300 with 22 HR, 84 RBI and his OPS of .910 was 9th best in the NL. Not too shabby! The only negative against Beltran was that he missed several games and landed on the DL again (he still played 142 games). He has been battling the injury bug the past few years, and there are several Cards that also have been doing the same.
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