FanPost

Adrian Beltre/upgrading the defense

I'm curious what the Bucsdugout crowd thinks about Adrian Beltre as a FA target?

I've been thinking about him as a target for a few weeks, thinking that the best (quick and dirty) way to to add some respectability to next years team would be to shore up the defense in a big way, especially since what starting pitching talent we have is of the pitch-to contact variety. One scenario I came up with is this:

Move Alvarez to 1B, sign J.J. Hardy to play SS, Beltre to play 3B and hope that Walker's D improves. Obviously we're not calling this a playoff roster, but it seems like a decent bridge roster to bring back a little respectability while we wait for more major talent to arrive.

Then I saw that Beltre had a majorly good season with the bat this year (I've been a little out of touch), and put up over 7 WAR (fangraphs). OTOH, I saw this article about Beltre's value, suggesting it might not be especially high. So could the pirates be a player for Beltre? Would he and Hardy make a big impact on the D in this scenario, or are there other players who would fit this idea better? Discuss.

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