To the surprise of absolutely no one, Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre was unhappy when the team put him on the disabled list for the first time since 2011 thanks to a Grade 1 quadriceps strain. The move was made retroactive to April 9, meaning he will be eligible to return to the Rangers' lineup on April 25 when they travel to Seattle for a weekend set.
“I felt I could manage it,” said Beltre, who has dealt with numerous hamstring strains but never a quad injury. “But this is a different injury than I’m used to. There was nothing I could say because the decision was already made.
“Over the course of last year, I was to the point of going on the DL, but I ended up playing 161 games. It didn’t sit well with me, but they probably have more information than I do. They want to be more cautious than I probably do.”
As far as we're concerned, Beltre has every right to be upset (and it's a good thing he is), but the Rangers made the right call with sticking Beltre on the DL in April. With Beltre having already missed five days and the ability to make the move retroactive, it only made sense. The Rangers' hope is that the extra time will allow him to fully heal and he hopefully won't have to be dealing with the injury all season like he has in the past with his hamstring injuries.
Rangers GM Jon Daniels agreed with us. Obviously.
“He probably wasn’t a realistic option for us until late this week or weekend,” Daniels said. “So the decision really came down to six or seven games. It’s not a risk we wanted to take at this point of the season, putting him out there compromised and with cool weather, too. I hate being without him, but we didn’t want to tempt fate and risk tacking on a much longer period of time. We’re hoping the extra week of rehab pays dividends.”
