Beltre's Absence Will Hurt, But Offense Can Survive

With Adrian Beltre hitting the disabled list on Monday, a huge wet blanket was thrown on top of the fire that is the Texas Rangers' offense as of late — an offense that suddenly went from one of the worst in baseball to the top of the heap over the course of May, when the Rangers went 19-11 to thrust themselves into the conversation for a possible postseason spot in a few months.

So is the recent run of success set to die with Beltre's thumb sprain? Well, possibly, but not necessarily.

As we discussed earlier, the biggest blow it deals the offense is the lack of a big right-handed bat in the lineup, but as far as sheer production, the Rangers can hang on for a few weeks without Beltre.

Over the last month, Beltre recovered from his awful April, but he still wasn't setting the world on fire. He hit .293 with a mediocre .313 on-base percentage and hit just four long balls while driving in 16 runs in 30 games. Conversely, Prince Fielder, Delino DeShields and Shin-Soo Choo were all regulars who had better offensive months than Beltre, and Mitch Moreland had an almost identical one. Then, of course, there's the new addition of Josh Hamilton, who just had a scorching series against the Red Sox and will look to keep that up for a decent amount of time.

So does Beltre's absence put a bit of a damper on the Rangers' big offensive outburst? Of course. But does it kill it? Absolutely not.

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