Yankees' Beltran can't reverse brutal start on birthday
Not one for ceremony, Carlos Beltran didn't really deviate from his normal routine when he celebrated his 38th birthday on Friday in the Bronx against the New York Mets.
In his club's 6-1 victory over their rivals from Queens, the veteran outfielder didn't send one over the fence or make a brilliant grab in right field. Instead, Beltran went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk as his batting average plummeted to .173 through the nascent stages of the 2015 campaign.
Since joining the New York Yankees last winter, the eight-time All-Star has proven himself a rapidly diminishing asset, unable to replicate the offensive success he enjoyed as recently as 2013, when he managed a 127 OPS+ with the St. Louis Cardinals.
After stumbling through a disappointing inaugural campaign with the Yankees - he hit just .233/.301/.402 (98 OPS+) with 15 home runs amid injury problems in 2014 - Beltran has thus far provided few reasons for optimism through the first three weeks of the new season.
Though his paltry batting average and non-existent power may be consequences of a small sample, Beltran's swing metrics - namely his growing contact issues and tendency to chase pitches outside the strike zone provide legitimate cause for concern.
| - | O-Swing% | Contact% | LD% | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career | 27.3% | 83.5% | 19.7% | 16.1% |
| 2015 | 34.4% | 81.0% | 17.1% | 27.8% |
Beltran has also whiffed on 11.1 percent of the fastballs he's seen in 2015 - he fanned on only 5.7 percent of the fastballs he saw one season ago - and has proven especially vulnerable to pitches up in the strike zone, an area he's handled well in the past.
There are still more than five months remaining in the 2015 campaign, of course, but Beltran's waning abilities on both offense and defense have to be cause for concern in the Bronx.