Red Sox Interested in Carlos Beltran?

By KC Downey in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ December 7, 2010 at 11:27pm ⋅ Post a comment

After the acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez, the Red Sox now may be looking for an outfielder. When Jayson Werth reached a ridiculous deal with the Nationals, Carl Crawford’s price tag went through the roof, which could mean he’s too expensive for the Sox. Also, Crawford is a lefthander with limited power, so perhaps that may not be the best option for a lineup dominated by lefthanded hitters.

The Red Sox are looking at all options during the winter meetings. They have been linked to former Brave Matt Diaz, National Josh Willingham, and free agent Magglio Ordonez. All are seen as possible options to fill in at left field in 2011. If those options fall through, the Red Sox maybe interested in someone else.

According to ESPN’s Matt Rubin…and later Peter Gammons, the Red Sox have had discussions internally about trading for New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran, who is due $18.5 million in the last year of his deal. It’s well-known that Beltran and the Mets really don’t see eye-to-eye at this point, so they could be looking to move him.

Analysis

With a career .282/.359/.494 line, Beltran could help the Red Sox from the right side of the plate. Against lefties in his career, Beltran has hit .294 and slugged .523, so he would be an asset in a lineup that features many lefties (Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Adrian Gonzalez, J.D. Drew).

Just speculating, but maybe the Red Sox could move Daisuke Matsuzaka (though he would have to waive a no-trade clause) to the Mets for Beltran, assuming the Mets would eat some of the OF’s contract. The Mets have reportedly been interested in Dice-K in the past, and maybe that interest is still there.