Rangers’ Beltre retires after 21 seasons, 3,166 hits

ARLINGTON, Texas — Adrian Beltre had a sometimes-imposing stare and plenty of quirky habits. He also had a genuine love for baseball, and a lot of fun in a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

After 21 big league seasons in which Beltre hit 477 home runs and became the first player from the Dominican Republic to have 3,000 hits, the slick-fielding third baseman for the Texas Rangers retired Tuesday at age 39.

“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 in a released statement. “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, who will be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in five years, was a .286 hitter with 1,707 RBIs in 2,933 career games. His 3,166 hits rank 16th on the 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.

“As much fun as people see us having at the ballpark all of the time, and playing around, I haven’t met somebody that was more detailed about the game than him,” Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “He’s going to be missed for sure. It’s going to be different.”

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. Beltre played with Los Angeles until 2004, the Seattle Mariners from 2005 to ’09 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.

“The thing for me that stood out that I was unaware of … was how much he fun he had,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “He’s obviously got an intense demeanor and it probably takes a little while for everybody to kind of get comfortable with him because he’s an intimidating guy, just because he’s so regimented and serious.”

Beltre often checked his own swing to umpires and hated being touched on the head, which teammates often exploited. There were the shuffling feet and swiveling legs in the batter’s box on inside pitches or those in the dirt.

There were those times when Beltre and Andrus would be only a few feet apart on the left side of the infield, both with their gloves in the air, one mimicking the other catching a popup. There was a pitching change at Seattle in 2013 when Beltre threw his glove at a fleeing Andrus after being popped on the head with a glove by the shortstop.