ATLANTA -- The hard part will be the steals.

This says a lot about just how upside down Elvis Andrus has turned his offensive tool box. The offensive thing for which he could be counted on in the first half of his career was steals. Now, still in the prime of his career, the one real obstacle that lies between him and a truly historic season is stolen bases.

With a little more than three weeks left in the season, Andrus has 23 steals. To become the third shortstop and the 19th player to reach 20 homers, 30 steals and 40 doubles in a season, he needs seven steals in 25 games. He is one homer and three doubles from checking those individual boxes. Among shortstops, only Jimmy Rollins (twice) and Hanley Ramirez have accomplished it.

"I can't believe that's the toughest one," Andrus said Tuesday afternoon. "l've got to get going on that. A couple of years ago, that was the easy part. It would be an amazing accomplishment."

A 20-30-40 season does not guarantee an MVP, much less a Hall of Fame invitation. It's merely one of those freakish statistical clubs marked by round numbers in multiple offensive categories. Once it was 20-20 (20 homers and 20 steals), then 30-30, and finally in the steroid era, the threshold was 40-40. Since then, all kinds of numbers have been parsed to create new clubs.

But mostly getting admittance to any of these groups is about hitting for power and running aggressively. It's about being a multi-dimensional threat. And a mere two years ago, who would have ever suggested Andrus was a threat of any type, much less a multi-dimensional one?

With 19 home runs, Andrus has more than doubled his previous career high (eight), set a year ago. With 37 doubles, he's set a career high for that, too.

"I can't say we saw this coming," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "We knew Elvis had some raw power, but he's just so much more mature as a hitter now than he was even a year ago. He's turned himself into a true hitter."

Said Andrus: "I never thought this way. I never thought about hitting homers. I never hit home runs in the minors. But I've just kept pushing to get better. Everything is a process. When I got to the big leagues, I just tried to get on base. I didn't try to do too much. Now, it's about driving the ball."

Andrus has driven the ball with authority over the last week, especially. In the first four games after Adrian Beltre went out with a hamstring strain, Andrus had three homers and eight RBIs while hitting in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots.

It's almost as if Andrus understood what the Rangers lost and tried to fill the void.

Here, too, Andrus displays a bit of the maturity about which the Rangers have raved the last two seasons.

"If I thought that way, everything would probably go south," Andrus said. "You put extra pressure on yourself and everything goes wrong. I'm trying to be smart. I'm not trying to do anything different than what I've done all year."

Banister acknowledges that Andrus is probably very much aware of the void and is filling it, but not trying to, as much as he's confident he can do it. There is a distinction.

"What he can lean on is that he's done this for most of the year," Banister said. "It gives him confidence to know he can. He's just being who he is, and he's confident in who that guy is."

And who that guy is a guy on the cusp of something truly historic.