Los Angeles Dodgers: Fifty greatest Dodgers of all-time (45-41)
By Jason Reed
43. 3B Adrian Beltre (25.2 WAR)
Stats: 966 G, .274 AVG, 147 HR, 510 RBI, 1x Silver Slugger
While Adrian Beltre will likely go into the Hall of Fame as a Texas Ranger, we cannot forget that Beltre played seven years with the Los Angeles Dodgers to begin his career. Beltre is just now serving year seven with the Rangers, and while he will surpass that number as he still has some in the tank, Beltre has not been a Ranger much longer than he was a Dodger.
Beltre will likely go in as a Ranger for the simple fact that Texas is where he has gotten most of his personal accolades and not to mention made it to the World Series. Beltre’s best year of his entire career did come as a Los Angeles Dodger and that is something us fans should never forget.
The year was 2004 and Adrian Beltre finished second in NL MVP voting behind Barry Bonds. It is a shame that in 2004 Barry Bonds put up the greatest year in MLB history with his record-setting 1.4217 OPS, or else Beltre would have taken home the honors.
Beltre had a fantastic season in 2004, he batted .334 with 48 home runs and 121 runs batted in. Any other year this would have been enough to garner the MVP spot, but like I said, it was unfortunate that it had to come at the same time as the best year in baseball history.
Regardless of how you remember Beltre, his time was well spent with the Dodgers as it kick started his masterful career.