Tonight is the likely signing deadline for Carlos Beltran, the latest superstar outfielder in baseball given his age (28), five tool skills and monster postseason for Houston last year. When the hot stove league first warmed up, all signs pointed to the Cubs making a serious offer to Beltran, whether the Cubs could move Sammy Sosa or not. At the time of this writing, however, it does not appear the Cubs are anywhere close to contending for Beltran's services, despite desperately needing a power hitting OF. Instead, it seems that Houston, and both NY teams will head toward tonight's likely signing deadline (Houston loses the ability to re-sign Beltran after today's date, meaning Beltran loses a suitor to drive up his price if Houston loses its rights) with the realistic shots at signing him.
While there are decent arguments for not signing him to the 7 year, $119M total contract favored by Beltran's agent Scott Boras (such as while a five tool star, Beltran's never hit higher than .307, never hit more than 38 HRs, and never once driven in 110 runs), Beltran's best years should be ahead of him, and how many chances do you get to sign a stud entering the prime years of his career, particularly when you need an OF of his caliber? The other problem I have with the seeming lack of Cubs interest is ownership's continuing arbitrary budgeting -- the Cubs could easily pay Beltran and Sosa for a year (especially given the fact that Beltran's contract is likely to be backloaded) at the very least to give Cubs fans the illusion the team is more committed to winning than revenue streams.
Here's hoping Jim Hendry has one more card to play here...
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