The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beltre receives $36M extension from Rangers
Third baseman’s new contract runs through ’18 season.
Sure, Adrian Beltre plans to retire as a member of the Texas Rangers. That just won’t be any time real soon.
A week after his 37th birthday, Beltre signed a new deal that adds $36 million and two years for the All-Star third baseman through the 2018 season.
“Yeah, I heard a lot about age and I should be declining, but I don’t buy into it until I feel it,” Beltre said Saturday. “I feel like I’m 25. I feel great, my body feels great. Mental, I’m good.”
And he’s still productive for the Rangers, who have been to a World Series and missed the postseason only once in his first five seasons. In 744 games with Texas before Saturday night, he was a .309 hitter with 137 home runs and 468 RBIs. He has won two of his four Gold Gloves since joining the Rangers.
Beltre is in the final season of the initial $96 million, six-year contract he signed with the Rangers as a free agent before the 2011 season.
Injured fan in stable condition: A fan hit by a foul ball at Tropicana Field was in stable condition Saturday at a hospital, one day after she was injured during a game between the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.
The woman, sitting in the lower box seats next to Tampa Bay’s dugout on the first base side, was struck in the seventh inning Friday night by a ball off the bat of Rays designated hitter Steven Souza Jr.
Souza went into the stands to check on her and said the ball hit her near the eye.
The game was delayed about 12 minutes so the woman could receive medical treatment. She was removed from the stands on a stretcher that was brought out to the on-deck circle.
Stadium workers were on the field Saturday adjusting the netting on the first and third base sides.
The ball went through a gap in the netting about the size of 11/2 baseballs. The area was covered before Saturday’s game.
Yankees-Mariners: Masahiro Tanaka (New York) and Hisashi Iwakuma (Seattle) are set today to become the first set of Japanese teammates to oppose each other as starting pitchers in the major leagues. Iwakuma and Tanaka played together from 2007-11 with Rakuten.
Rockies: Catcher Nick Hundley was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list after he took a foul tip off his mask.
Angels: Reserve outfielder Daniel Nava was placed on the disabled list with tendinitis in his left knee.