The brief, glorious tenure of new Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran on the Cardinals

Cast your minds back with me to a time when the St. Louis Cardinals made the playoffs every year and were a force to be reckoned with. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? That glorious half-decade of the early 2010s that brought a World Series title and more NLCS appearances than Lady Gaga had weird stage outfits. The first Avengers movie was the highest-grossing film. LeBron James was in his “Heatles” era, and Taylor Swift was never, ever, ever getting back together. The Cardinals were perhaps the best-run franchise in all of pro sports. They were fresh off the 2011 title, just watched Albert Pujols waltz out the door to the purgatory of the Angels (get it?), and had the number one farm system in the game. Take me back — or, maybe, Chaim, cue up the remix?!

Into this post-Pujols Cardinals power half-decade stepped Carlos Beltran. He signed a two-year, $26 million deal in December 2011. This was not the peak-of-his-powers, five-tool Beltran, but at 35 years old, he was a significant signing that needed to play a significant role with Matt Holliday in the middle of the order. And, in two regular seasons, he did just that. Largely batting second in the order, Beltran hit .269/.346/.495 and then .296/.339/.491 and was an All-Star both years. With all due apologies to Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, this was a veteran signing that worked out. Beltran netted All-Star appearances in both 2012 and 2013 and helped lead the Cardinals to the playoffs both years. (You didn’t forget October in St. Louis was an annual tradition already, did you?)

Carlos Beltran had a short, yet profound tenure with the Cardinals

But, as Carlos Beltran gets the call to Cooperstown, I’m here to tell you that it wasn’t the regular season where he earned his $26 million. It was the playoffs. In fact, my brother and I would text his last name back and forth when he came up big in the postseason, and several iterations of iPhones later, the man’s name still autocorrects to BELTRAN in my phone. He was unreal.

Between 2012 and 2013, he played in five postseason series for the Cardinals constituting 29 games. Yes, yes, I know small sample size — but the small sample size of the playoffs are where legends are made. Ask Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt — except you can’t really ask them, can you? Feast your eyes on the OPS numbers for BELTRAN (old habits die hard) for each individual series: 1.486 (lol), .984, .944, .899, .894. Yes, folks, it was sick. The entire Washington Nationals franchise still has bad dreams from seeing Beltran come to the plate in the 2012 NLDS. 

The stats are one thing, but it’s the feeling that’s another. You just knew the guys were going to come through with an extra-base hit with men on base — and he hit rockets off the wall almost every single time. It was like Beltran in the playoffs put MLB The Show on rookie difficulty and went absolutely ham. Lest you forget, it was like the inverse of what he did to us in the 2004 NLCS when he was with the Astros. Yes, his OPS in that series was 1.521, I’ll give you time to laugh again. My high school senior self was terrified every time Beltran came to the plate, even though the Cardinals won that series. Needless to say, it was quite nice to have that feeling from the other angle. 

Is Carlos Beltran perfect? No, of course not. Was there the sticky wicket of the Astros cheating scandal? Yep. But, in that brief, glorious tenure with the Cardinals, the man essentially hit like prime Pujols. Boy, this franchise could really use some of that right now.