Nolan Ryan's famous high heat has evidently migrated south to his wallet, where it was burning a hole. The Rangers made the kind of impulse buy on the free agent market this year that I fear they will regret. Worse yet, it could hamstring them mid-summer when they're one trade short of a division lead.
The AL champs aptly rewarded Vlad Guerrero's surprising season with walking papers on the premise that they'd squeezed all the tasty juice from him that was left. But then, after fanning on Cliff Lee, they turned around and dumped the unclaimed Benjamins on the next biggest name on the free agent wire. $96 mil over six years for Adrian Beltre is not only too much for too long, it could really hurt in July.
Why is this a march in reverse? Let me count the ways.
1. As I've chronicled before, Beltre is a contract phenomenon whose two best seasons -- by a country mile, and I don't mean a pipsqueak country like Belize or Latvia, I'm talking about Sudan before it split, or all the islands of Indonesia -- immediately preceded contract expirations. Texas has now removed that incentive until the star cornerman is 38 and can't take advantage anymore.
2. If Michael Young and his remaining $48 million salary is no longer the Rangers' third baseman, what is he? At 34, he's no more a shortstop than Derek Jeter and no more a second baseman than Mama Cass. Young's bat, .284/.330/.444, does the tango at short, the polka at third and the Macarena at DH. He's clogging up the lineup, but unloading him for a roster spot will cost a Texas-sized eating of salary.
3. The AL West is up for grabs in '11, but the Rangers have holes. Josh Hamilton and the pitching staff are both almost certain to regress and the A's and M's could be more formidable. Come the trading deadline, what's GM Jon Daniels to do? He will have already cashed in the mutual fund for the newly unmotivated Beltre, leaving him cash-strapped when better opportunities present themselves.
Contrast that with the Yankees, who are relaxing on the dock after failing to land the big free agent fish. If they're still in the thick of it, they'll have plenty of cash to take some richly-compensated starting pitcher off of some rebuilder's hands.
b
Patience won't get you 5,000 strikeouts. But when you're the owner of a Major League team it can be a virtue.
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