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Beltran then tacked on a coda to his career that will be discussed for as long as there is baseball. As he aged, he leaned into being a power hitter, becoming a have-bat, will-travel right fielder and DH. From 2012 through 2016, Beltran hit 119 homers and posted nine bWAR for the Cardinals, Yankees and Rangers, pushing three of those teams to the playoffs and one to the World Series.
Had it ended there, had Beltran retired with 71 bWAR and 421 home runs, with one of the all-time great postseason lines (.323/.432/.646, 16 homers, 11/0 SB/CS), he’d have been in the Hall of Fame a few years ago. Beltran, though, signed with the Astros, at 40, looking for the one thing left to cap his career, a World Series ring. He got the ring, but he’ll count the cost for years. Beltran was one of the architects of the Astros’ sign-stealing system, which used a TV screen in the dugout to decode catchers’ signs and a primitive signaling system to let batters know what pitch was coming.
