Bountiful Beltrán

It’s Hall of Fame consideration season.  Until the announcement of the new class, Connections will be looking at some of the names on the 2025 ballot. 

Currently, there are 275 men who have been elected to the Hall of Fame as a “Player” (in contrast to “Manager” or “Pioneer/Executive” or “Umpire”).  Among them, only 15 position players add the label “switch-hitter” to their description.  Needing a significant bump in his approval percentage, it’s unlikely Carlos Beltrán makes it 16 in 2025, but it also appears – thanks to his jump from Year 1 to Year 2 (from 46.5% to 57.1% last year) – he’ll eventually join the likes of Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Chipper Jones and Tim Raines in Cooperstown.  He’d fit right in:

Where Beltrán would rank among the 15

~Ninth in OPS+ (119), between George Davis’ 121 and Ted Simmons’ 118

~Seventh in bWAR (70.1), between Frankie Frisch’s 71.8 and Raines’ 69.4

~Second in Extra-Base Hits (1,078), between Murray’s 1,099 and Jones’ 1,055

~Fifth in Times on Base (3,860), between Raines’ 3,977 and Roberto Alomar’s 3,806

~Fourth in Home Runs (435), between Jones’ 468 and Simmons’ 248

~First in Doubles (565), ahead of Murray’s 560

~Seventh in Steals (312), between Frisch’s 419 and Cool Papa Bell’s 285

~Fifth in Runs (1,582), between Jones’ 1,619 and Raines’ 1,571

~Third in RBI (1,587), between Jones’ 1,623 and Mickey Mantle’s 1,509

The expansiveness of his fit and the variety of names he abuts underscores Beltrán’s array of skills, an amalgamation of talent that can connect him to one of the great leadoff hitters in some respects, some of the game’s most prolific long-hit artists in others, and evaluate him in the same contextualized breath with a pair of infielders whose careers cover a span from 1890 to 1937.  Beltrán’s vastness as a ballplayer also catalyzes a whole lot of fun list-making.  

One avenue can focus on his baserunning, where he owns the best stolen base percentage (86.4%) among all players since 1920 with at least 300 attempts (before 1920, caught stealing records are incomplete).  Among the 26 players with a percentage at or above 80.0%, Beltrán is one of only two to also boast of at least 1,000 extra-base hits, joining Álex Rodríguez.  Those two are also part of the eight-man club featuring 1,000 extra-base hits and 300 thefts, where Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson*** and Craig Biggio also reside.

Beltrán is one of 39 players with at least 1,500 runs scored and 1,500 driven in, a list that accommodates fellow center fielders (at least 60% of their games in center) Cobb, Speaker, Mays, Mantle and Ken Griffey, Jr.  He’s one of 35 to reach both 1,000 extra-base hits and 1,000 walks, sharing center field space with that same group just mentioned, sans Mantle.  

And yet, for all that spectacular company, all his spectacular career achievements and placements, no towering season or mini peak stands out – no 10,000-watt campaign to cast an extra-special afterglow on the career.  His highest bWAR – an 8.2 in 2006 – stands tied for the 248th best all-time among position players (it’s tied for 48th best among center fielders, tied for the 10th best among switch-hitters ).  He never led his league in any of the well-thumbed offensive categories.  For such an accomplished player, there’s curiously little to beguile a witness – except for, and it’s a big “except for,” the postseason.  

Beltrán’s postseason brilliance aligned with his first exposure to October baseball – a 12-game game explosion in 2004 that produced the following numbers:  21 runs and 20 hits, eight homers and three doubles, 14 RBI, nine walks, six steals, a .435/.536/1.022 slash line (yes, that’s a 1.022 slugging percentage).  It was as if every component of his abundant skill set was allowed to appear at the same time, each turned to its apex limit.  Beltrán had authored his first chapter in a postseason career that stands as one of the most accomplished ever.  Some of the statements that can be made:

~Beltrán is one of 10 NL-AL players ever to retire with at least 100 postseason plate appearances and a .300/.400/.500 line.  He’s one of six within that collection to have his slugging percentage in the six or seven hundreds, along with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lenny Dykstra, Hank Greenberg and Paul Molitor.

~Beltrán is one of five players ever to have retired with at least 60 postseason games and to have averaged at as high as .67 runs scored per game.  The other four:  Rickey Henderson, Bernie Williams, Kenny Lofton and Derek Jeter.  

~Among the 44 position players to have retired with at least 60 postseason games, his ratio of extra-base hits to games played is the highest, ahead of David Ortiz’s mark.

~For the playoffs since 1920, there have been 28 players to post at least 10 steals.  Beltrán is one of two (along with Carl Crawford) to accompany that line with zero times caught stealing.

~Beltrán claims single-season Division Series high marks for runs scored and total bases.  He owns the single-season LCS record for runs scored.  He shares the single year postseason record for runs scored and is tied for second for most homers in a single postseason.  

This is Beltrán in a few snapshots.  One of the most accomplished switch-hitters ever, companionship with some of the most celebrated center fielders to ever play the game, a virtuosic postseason performer whose career accomplishments are surpassed by few.  Beltrán built a Hall of Fame career on the foundation of an exceptional toolkit – power, patience, speed – and did it over an exceptionally long time.  He rarely rattled the baseball world with a thunder and lightning show, but he was a constant presence, from a Rookie of the Year campaign as a 22-year-old to a ninth and final All-Star appearance as he closed in on his 40s.  In a way, he’s an ideal candidate for immortalization, an embodiment of the many ways a ballplayer can find and create success on the diamond, a spectrum of talent that chiseled out a significant presence worthy of everlasting acclaim.      

***Except for the walks, Andre Dawson and Carlos Beltrán are peas in a pod.  

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.