Team leader Beltre wants team to remain a buyer
Extra innings: The A’s are hoping to have utility man Chad Pinder back fromthe DL, where he has been dealing with a strained left hamstring, when they return home from an upcoming seven-game trip. ... Dodgers LHPHyun-Jin Ryu, who hasn’t pitched since June 28 because of a bruised left foot, threw his second simulated gameWednesday.
BALTIMORE — The question of whether a given team should be a buyer or seller at the July 31 trade deadline is not typically posed to one of that team’s players. But Adrian Beltre is different. He is the elder statesman of the Texas Rangers, their undisputed clubhouse leader and, at age 38, still their best hitter by almost any measure. He is 17 hits shy of 3,000 for his career. In late July of the fifth year after his retirement, whenever that occurs, there is likely to be a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, to induct him into the Hall of Fame.
He also has, by virtue of his supreme standing, a direct line to GeneralManager Jon Daniels. So Beltre’s take on the Rangers’ direction absolutely matters, and here, offered up in the visiting clubhouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards lateWednesday afternoon, it is:
“We don’t want our team, our players or the GM to think that somehow we’re out [of contention], or looking like we’re going to be out,” Beltre said. “. . . This is a time when teams become buyers or sellers, and right now we’re not helping [our cause]. But me, I’m a buyer. I’ve always been a buyer.”
About six hours after Beltre spoke those words, the Rangerswrapped up an ugly, 10-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, dropping them to 45-49 for the season, 3½ games out of a wild-card spot — with four teams ahead of them. In the first three games of their fourgame series inBaltimore, the Rangers have dropped three straight, by acombinedscore of 25-4, to an Orioles team that had just been outscored 27-11 in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Chicago Cubs.
After acknowledging that he has spoken to Daniels about the club’s direction (though “not recently,” he added), Beltre essentially outlined what his message would be: “I hope he understands and believes in this team,” he said. “Idonotwant to see this team dismantled. It’s been on my mind that I hope he doesn’t think about that. We don’twant anybody to thinkwe’re out of it.”
Of the many teams occupying the gray area between buying and selling this month, the Rangers are perhaps the most intriguing. The defending American League West champions, they haven’t played anywhere close to their potential and have been remarkably consistent in their mediocrity, going 11-14 in April, 15-14 in May (despite a 10-game winning streak), 13-13 in June and (so far) 6-8 in July. They can forget about a successful divisiontitle defense, with the Houston Astros now 17½ games ahead of them. Their path to the playoffs, such that it is, resides in the muddled wildcard race, where they are one of six teams within four games of the current leaders for the second wild card, the NewYorkYankees.
“It’s a congested field,” Daniels told reporters as the season’s second half got underway. “Whenwe look at the team lined up against the competition, we like our chances - on paper. . . . We’re just healthier than we were early on. There’s no guarantee that’s here to stay. But I do think there’s reason to believewe’re going to play better.”
What Beltre hopes is that hit No. 3,000 is just a small distinction within the larger context of a late-summer playoff race, as opposed to the overriding focal point for a downsized team with nothing else to play for. There is plenty ofwork to do for both BeltreandtheRangers.