Bye, Bye, Mike Lowell: Adrian Beltre To Sign with Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell couldn’t pass a physical, so a possible trade to the Texas Rangers fell through. Despite the lack of a trade, a message was sent: Boston no longer wanted Lowell, a very dependable player when healthy. The Red Sox think so little of Lowell at this juncture of his career that they have already reportedly signed his replacement.

Adrian Beltre , who just finished an underwhelming five-year stint with the Seattle Mariners, has been brought in to man the hot corner. The 30-year-old has had one solid year in his 11-year career: he hit .334 with 48 homers and 121 RBI in 2004 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Prior to that season, he had never hit more than 23 homers, nor batted higher that .257 with regular playing time. On top of that, the previous season he played in two more games but hit only 23 homers with 80 RBI while batting .240. Coincidentally, the ridiculous jump happened during a contract year.

Seattle signed him to a very lucrative deal that offseason. With money in hand, he returned to his pre-2004 and possibly pre-steroid form. With the Mariners, he never hit better than .276, crushed more than 26 homers, or drive in more than 99 runs.

After a .388 on-base percentage in 2004, he never reached base at a higher rate than .327. So, how did he remain with the team for the duration of the contract? Well, partly because no one wanted to take on his contract, but also because his defense was tremendous, his presence in the clubhouse was excellent, and his offense was still serviceable.

At the beginning of this offseason, Beltre wanted a four-year contract worth more than $40 million. No one was going to answer those demands, especially following a injury-plagued 2009 in which he hit only 8 homers and plated 44 in 111 games (449 at-bats). Despite being only 30 years old, he was forced to lower his demands, and took a substantially cheaper deal in order to play with Boston.

To join the Red Sox, he accepted a one-year contract worth $9 million , with a player option for 2011 worth $5 million. This is tremendous signing by Boston. Lowell’s presence will be missed, but Beltre is five years younger, and though the injury bug will hit him, he can be counted on to play superb defense and hit 20-plus home-runs per season.

Agent Scott Boras is known for getting mountains of money for his clients, but Boras knows what he’s doing by taking this deal: if Beltre has a monster year, he can join the 2010 free-agent pool and sign a very rich deal, which means more money for Boras.

And Fenway Park is a great place to put up big numbers, which was probably part of the uber-agent’s thinking.

Though I’ve never really liked Beltre as a player, he is another intelligent signing by general manager Theo Epstein. He shelled out the big bucks for John Lackey, but has made many inexpensive, low-risk, high-reward signings this offseason: shortstop Marco Scutaro, outfielder Mike Cameron, and now Beltre. Scutaro, Cameron, and Beltre were signed for a combined six years and $35.5 million.

The signing of Beltre helps take out the sting of letting Jason Bay go . Now, they are closer to replacing his power. Benefiting from Fenway, Cameron, and Beltre, both right-handed hitters, could easily hit 30-plus homers.

The signing of Beltre also further proves to Red Sox fans what they already knew: the team is in win-now mode, ready to take down the New York Yankees and win a championship in 2010.