Beltre's career is so much bigger than one milestone
When Adrian Beltre collected his 3,000th hit Sunday afternoon against the Baltimore Orioles, there was a collective nod among baseball fans that the Texas Rangers third baseman had joined an exclusive club. The fact is, though, Beltre was already a member.
With his double off left-hander Wade Miley, Beltre became the 31st player in MLB history to reach 3,000 hits, and just the fifth at his position. Here's how he ranks among his positional peers:
| Player | Hits | AVG |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Molitor | 3319 | .306 |
| George Brett | 3154 | .305 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 3115 | .295 |
| Wade Boggs | 3010 | .328 |
| Adrian Beltre | 3000 | .286 |
That list features three Hall of Fame players and a future Hall of Famer in A-Rod.
However, as you may have noticed, Beltre is one of just two hitters on the list with a sub-.300 batting average. And A-Rod owes his almost entirely to his last three seasons, during which he hit .237 over just 260 games. But we're better than measuring players by batting average by now, right?
Instead, let's take a look at the all-time WAR leaderboard among third basemen:
| Player | G | AVG | OBP | SLG | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Rodriguez | 2784 | .295 | .380 | .550 | 113.0 |
| Mike Schmidt | 2404 | .267 | .380 | .527 | 106.5 |
| Eddie Mathews | 2391 | .271 | .376 | .509 | 96.1 |
| Wade Boggs | 2440 | .328 | .415 | .443 | 88.3 |
| George Brett | 2707 | .305 | .369 | .487 | 84.6 |
| Chipper Jones | 2499 | .303 | .401 | .529 | 84.6 |
| Adrian Beltre | 2769 | .286 | .339 | .481 | 83.2 |
| Brooks Robinson | 2896 | .267 | .322 | .401 | 80.2 |
| Ron Santo | 2243 | .277 | .362 | .464 | 70.9 |
| Scott Rolen | 2038 | .281 | .364 | .490 | 70.1 |
(Stats courtesy: FanGraphs)
Again, it's a list of players either in the Hall of Fame or awaiting eligibility. Even further, Beltre is the only active player on it - though Miguel Cabrera is creeping in.
Let's do something a little bit different, though. Let's look at how all of those players stack up by only taking into account their age-31 seasons and beyond. Tabulated manually from Baseball-Reference, and remembering that Beltre is just 38 years old, that looks like this:
| Player | WAR |
|---|---|
| Adrian Beltre | 47.9 |
| Mike Schmidt | 47.5 |
| Chipper Jones | 40.9 |
| Wade Boggs | 39.5 |
| Brooks Robinson | 35.5 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 32.8 |
| George Brett | 29.3 |
| Eddie Mathews | 22.7 |
| Scott Rolen | 22.6 |
| Ron Santo | 8.7 |
During what's supposed to be a player's decline, Beltre has been defiantly productive. In fact, he's provided surplus value on every single season of his two veteran contracts - a five-year, $96-million deal and a two-year, $36-million deal. That feat in itself seems almost unbelievable in the modern era.
Beltre's age-31 and beyond average WAR is just shy of 6.0 - a total Brooks Robinson only eclipsed once in his career, at the age of 27, and a mark which George Brett only beat twice, once at 27 and once at 32.
Granted, he hasn't endured any declining phase at all - and that may come as he gets even nearer to or beyond 40. It's worth noting, though, that Chipper Jones gracefully retired without venturing into the dubious late-career negative-WAR phase.
There are plenty of players who begin their careers on what appears to be a Hall of Fame pace. While Beltre's best overall season - his 2004 campaign with the Los Angeles Dodgers - happened at 25 years old, it's what he accomplished in his 30s that truly sets him apart.
The 3,000-hit club? How about we start a new group in Beltre's honor: The ageless wonder club.