Earlier this week, veteran third baseman Adrian Beltre announced he would be hanging up his spikes after 21 years in the big leagues.
Often overlooked as an all-time great, Beltre ranks as the fourth greatest third baseman in major league history according to JAWS (a stat that measures a player’s overall talent as well as the explosiveness of his peak), behind only Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, and Wade Boggs.
One of the biggest reason for that is Beltre’s longevity.
His 2,933 career games rank are good enough to rank him 14th all-time and his 11,068 at-bats rank eighth. A major league regular by age 19, Beltre had a 23.1 career defensive WAR at third base, which trails only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson at the position.
For his career, Beltre has 3,166 hits, 477 home runs, 1,707 runs batted in, and a95.7 career wins above replacement. He also won five Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, and snagged four top-10 Most Valuable Player Award finishes.
In March, Schmidt sang the 39-year-old’s praises.
“How about Beltre?” Schmidt said. “First-ballot guy, kind of hid in the weeds most of his career. Isn’t he now a 3,000-hit guy? He’s gotta be considered past me in terms of the greatest of all-time. He’ll bypass me. Why not? He wins a Gold Glove every year and hits 40 every year; that’s better than me.”
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