Slugger calls it a career
Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre retires after 21 seasons, 3,166 hits
Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers retired Tuesday after 21 seasons in a career in which he hit 477 home runs and became the first player from the Dominican Republic to have 3,000 hits.
The 39-year-old third baseman announced his decision in a statement released by the Rangers, saying it is time for the “next chapter of my life.”
“After careful consideration and many sleepless nights, I have made the decision to retire from what I’ve been doing my whole life, which is playing baseball, the game I love,” Beltre said. “I have thought about it a lot and although I appreciate all the opportunities and everything that baseball has given
me, it’s time to call it a career.”
Beltre was a .286 hitter with 1,707 RBIS in 2,933 career games. His 3,166 hits rank 16th on baseball’s career list, with
his homers total 30th and RBIS 24th. He played 2,759 games at third base – only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson had more.
The four-time all-star and five-time Gold Glove winner was 19 when he made his big league debut with the Dodgers in 1998. He will be eligible to be on the Hall of Fame ballot in five years.
In his statement, Beltre thanked former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, then the team’s interim general manager, for “believing in this young kid from the Dominican Republic when others thought I was too young to be called up” to the majors. Beltre was only 15 when he first signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in July 1994.
Beltre played with Los Angeles until 2004, then was with the Seattle Mariners from 200509 and the Boston Red Sox in 2010. He joined the Rangers on a $96-million, six-year free agent deal in 2011, and appeared in his only World Series in his first season with Texas.