Cardinals Sign Carlos Beltran To Help Replace Albert Pujols, Good Luck With That...

The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals and free agent OF Carlos Beltran have reached an agreement on a 2-year deal worth $26 Million. The Cardinals made the move to help bolster a lineup that will be without the service of Albert Pujols and his bat for the first time in more than a decade. Beltran is slated to be the Cards' Opening Day right fielder come April. Beltran, now 34, had something of a resurgent year in 2011 batting .300 with 22 HRs and 84 RBIs.

I have to say I'm glad that Beltran is still able to get it done considering how shaky his knees had become during the end of his Mets tenure. Beltran impressed everyone last year with his ability to stay healthy and durable over the course of the year while producing offensively near a level that we hadn't since from him in several years. He also made the transition from CF to RF rather seamlessly after the team came to realize that his fielding range wasn't quite what it used to be when Beltran was winning Gold Gloves out there. Knowing he was playing for a contract likely contributed to his success and his year was good enough for the Mets to be able to trade him to the San Francisco Giants for a top prospect, something analysts thought would be impossible at the beginning of the season.

The question becomes will Beltran be able to hold up for another full year now that he's gotten paid? The Cardinals are going to ask a lot of Beltran to be a significant contributor to the middle of their lineup day in, day out. I have a feeling that Beltran will have a successful first half of the year but that his legs will begin to fail him and he will be haunted by the injury problems that tarnished the end of his career in New York. Whether or not he struggles I really do wish him the best.