How 2011 Texas Rangers Helped Adrian Beltre Play With Joy Again, Become Hall Of Famer

The Texas Rangers' stacked lineup in 2011 allowed Adrián Beltré to relax, rediscover his love of the game and become a Hall of Famer.

ARLINGTON —  When Adrián Beltré joined the Texas Rangers ahead of the 2011 season, he joined a powerhouse lineup that had just won the club its first American League pennant.

It was a roster filled with sluggers such as Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli, and All-Stars such as Michael Young and Ian Kinsler.

Beltré didn't have to be "the man." He was another man among men and it served him well, he said, during Wednesday's press conference at Globe Life Field a day after he became a first-ballot National Baseball Hall of Famer. 

Beltré had standout seasons before signing with the Rangers as a free agent, including a league-leading 48 home runs with 121 RBI in his last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004. In 2010, in his lone season with the Boston Red Sox, he was an All-Star, batting .321 and belted a league-leading 49 doubles.

It was during his eight seasons with the Rangers, however, that he solidified his Hall of Fame bona fides. He received MVP votes in each of the first six seasons with the club, where he collected nearly all of his benchmark moments to clearly signify that he belonged in Cooperstown, N.Y., including his 400th homer, 3,000th hit, and surpassing 1,500 runs and 1,700 RBI. 

"It’s a big part of my career and where I ended up being more productive consistently," Beltré told the media and more than a dozen former teammates on hand to help celebrate the moment. "I just found that when I got here it was it was the right spot for me. I had great teammates. The front office was supportive of me and my family, and I just felt that the team we had was a team to compete, and that made it easier for me to just get out there and play the game."

Of course, Beltré was way more than just another player in the clubhouse. He quickly earned the respect of team leaders such as Young and had the ear of excitable young players such as Elvis Andrus.

The stability of those Rangers teams and a better understanding of the mechanics of his swing, thanks to Rangers coaches, Beltré said, were integral to him relaxing and rediscovering the joy of the game he loved so much as a kid growing up in the Dominican Republic.

Hall of Famer Adrián Beltré fielding a slow roller during Game 6 of the 2011 World Series / Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

"I got here with a great team that went to the World Series the year before," he said before name-checking some of his teammates at the time, many of whom were in the room. "They made me feel comfortable, and that was the reason why I felt I could be just one of the guys and have fun and play the game hard. And when you're winning, it’s easier to have fun, and we were winning a lot. The team that we had was just loaded with great hitters that I learned a lot from. It was more of, I don't have to be the guy and just be one of them."

Beltré struggled — relatively speaking — during five seasons with the Seattle Mariners, batting .266 with 103 homers. Those five seasons — his age 26 through 30 seasons — should have been his prime years. They weren't, and he wasn't loving the game.

After a resurgence in Boston, he was ready to blossom in Arlington.

"I had more experience, and I had better hitting coaches [here]. I learned things [about] my swing that it took me a little longer to learn, to master what I needed to do to be more consistent," he said. "There's no doubt that I could have learned that earlier. I wish I could have found out earlier, but it took me longer to understand what my swing was and how I could be more consistent, and I think I found it in Texas."

Another light-bulb moment for him was accepting the business side of the game but not letting that dictate how he played it.

"I just love the game, that's all I wanted to do when I was a little kid, and I lost a little bit of that along the way," he said. "Once I started to try to play the game for the fans, [instead of] because you got this contract you have to perform this way. It was too much for me."

So he remembered the little kid who loved playing baseball, the game that came easy for him.

"That's when I found out that, what if I just played the game and have fun and enjoy it? It'd be easier for you. Just do your job, right? So I went through some hard times in Seattle and tough times [when] I did not enjoy the game," he said. "After that, I said, what's the worst that can happen? I can't have a worse freaking year than this, so I said just enjoy it."

Again, he credited his Rangers teammates at the time for allowing him that grace to relax and enjoy himself on the field while maintaining the utmost respect for the game.

"I did not want to disrespect anybody, so it was hard to find that gray area [in which] you enjoy yourself without pissing everybody off," he said to laughter. "So I hope I did it okay, but you know I was just trying to be myself. But it's easy to have fun when you’re winning, and when we were here, we were winning a lot, so that helped a lot too."

Annoying Andrus Relishes Hall Of Famer Beltré

You can follow Stefan Stevenson on X @StefanVersusTex.

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