When the New York Yankees signed Carlos Beltran to a three-year $45 million contract prior to the 2014 season it raised some eyebrows. It’s usually not a good idea to sign a player that old to that long a term when he has negative defensive value.
While the terms “negative defensive value” and “Carlos Beltran” have traditionally mixed like mayonnaise and grapefruit in the latter part of his career injuries and age have caught up with him. According to FanGraphs, he hasn’t been defensively in the black since 2008-five years before he signed with the Yankees.
However, Beltran was coming off a couple of excellent seasons with the bat and the Yankees play by different rules than almost anyone else.