History was made Sunday when Yankees right fielder Carlos Beltran slugged his 400th home run, becoming the 54th player to reach the milestone and just the fourth switch hitter to accomplish the feat. Beltran is now in a group with three other switch-hitting baseball luminaries in Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray and Chipper Jones. Two of those three are already in the Hall of Fame, and the other (Jones) is all but certain to get there eventually. Whether Beltran should join them in Cooperstown is up for debate, but as a 400-homer, 300-steal, 66-fWAR player, he certainly has a legitimate case.
More from around baseball:
- Jim Bowden of SiriusXM has asked a dozen teams whether they’d be interested in acquiring suspended Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes if Colorado were to pick up the remaining money on his contract, and all 12 have passed on the idea (Twitter link). One of those clubs is the Blue Jays, for whom Reyes played from 2013 until midway through last season. General manager Ross Atkins told Bowden on Sunday that Toronto has no interest in Reyes (Twitter link), who would likely have difficulty finding playing time on a team with Troy Tulowitzki at short and second baseman Devon Travis nearing a return from offseason shoulder surgery.
- Although no one Bowden has spoken with wants any part of Reyes, who is serving a suspension through May 31 because of a violation of the league’s domestic violence policy, a National League executive told John Perrotto of Today’s Knuckleball that he expects the 32-year-old to get another opportunity. “While I don’t condone what he did, he had a good reputation of being a good guy and a good teammate to that point,” said the executive. “I’m sure whoever take a chance on him is going to let him know right up front that there will be a zero-tolerance policy. One misstep and he’s gone.” Also of importance: Commissioner Rob Manfred wanted to give Reyes a longer suspension than the 52-game ban he settled on, but there wasn’t enough evidence to levy a harsher punishment, a source told Perrotto.
Why would Bowden ask the Blue Jays or any team with the middle infield covered if they wanted to acquire Reyes? That’s just dumb. Only teams that have a need are going to want to acquire him, but that’s true of anyone on the trade block.
It’s the very reason why he’s on satellite radio and not holding a GM post.
It like life if a man goes to prison comes out and while in did everything to get his life right . He deserve another chance . But I see uppity folks are throwing the first stone knowing not the truth or maybe done worst but we don’t want that to ever affect there jobs
I suppose it’s something that Rob Manfred at least wanted to give Reyes a longer suspension; I was disappointed in the commissioner and still am disappointed in the ridiculously short length of the suspension.
Coming from basically no policy at all to where we’re at now in basically a year… can that be something, too? Just a few years ago there may have been a couple of days suspension from the team at most.