A’s Out Of Adrian Beltre Race?

The A’s appear to be out of the bidding for free agent 3B Adrian Beltre, and are likely to turn their focus to finding arms for their bullpen. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com, reports that the A’s are likely out of the race to land Beltre, who turned down an offer by the A’s early in the offseason. The deal, which was worth $64 million over five years, was a little less than the Angels’ offer that they recently pulled.

Despite pulling their offer, however, Rosenthal reports that the Angels remain the likely frontrunners to land Beltre. Beltre, who snubbed Oakland yet again this year, owns a home in the Los Angeles area, and the Angels are in desperate need for a power hitting third-baseman. Beltre hit .321/.365/.553 with 28 home runs and 102 RBIs this past season for the Red Sox.

It’s disappointing news to say the least, but at least this whole A’s-Beltre debacle is finally over. It has had many fans on edge for most of the offseason, and many are still awaiting a final decision from Beltre. According to Rosenthal, the A’s improved their offer at least once before finally deciding to pull out completely.

The A’s hit just 109 home runs this past season, which ranked 28th in baseball, and while they’ve added guys like Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham, and David DeJesus, the team could have benefited from having a guy like Beltre on offense.

With Beltre officially out of the picture for the A’s, the team can finally move on and focus their attention to finding relief support.