Texas Rangers' Adrian Beltre announces retirement after 21 years in MLB

Gabe Lacques | USA TODAY

Adrian Beltre's baseball career began as a teenager, a skinny third baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers who made his debut in the summer of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.

Two decades later, Beltre's major league career has ended - with a final stop coming, in Cooperstown.

Beltre, 39, announced his retirement Tuesday morning, concluding a 21-year career in which he amassed 477 home runs and 3,166 hits, establishing himself as the greatest third baseman of his era.

He's the lone third baseman in major league history with at least 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.

In an announcement through the Texas Rangers, his team for the final eight years of his career, Beltre said his decision came after "careful consideration and many sleepless nights."

His retirement leaves Rangers teammate Bartolo Colon, 45, as the last remaining player who began his career in the 1990s.

Beltre left an impact on all four franchises for which he played, producing the second-greatest home run season in Dodgers history with 48 in 2004, capping a seven-season run there in which he hit 147 home runs. He struggled offensively during five seasons in Seattle, but emerged as a two-time Gold Glove winner.

He spent just one season - 2010 - in Boston, but it was a year that charted a new course in his career: Beltre hit an American League-best 49 doubles, boosted his OPS to .919, made his first All-Star team and hit the free agent market a third time, entering his age 32 season.

Beltre's decision - Los Angeles Angels or Texas Rangers? - would alter the fate of the AL West for years to come.

He opted for Texas, signing a five-year, $80 million deal, and neither club nor player were ever the same.

For the next six seasons, he'd finish in the top 15 in MVP voting, and the Rangers flourished - coming one out away from their first World Series championship in his first season, 2011. They made the playoffs in four of his first six seasons in Arlington - and the world got to know what a sublime and entertaining player he was.

Whether he was engaging in an ongoing "feud" with shortstop Elvis Andrus, imposing his leadership on the clubhouse or making highlight-reel plays at third base, Beltre was as quietly charismatic as he was subtly dominant on the diamond.

His numbers are Cooperstown-worthy by a long shot - oh, he also ranks 14th all-time in total bases and 11th with 636 doubles - but modern metrics are also very kind. According to Sports Info Solutions, Beltre has nearly double the number of Defensive Runs Saved than any other third baseman since the statistic was developed in 2003. He also ranks 10th all-time in defensive Wins Above Replacement - for any position.

As baseball continues to grapple with honoring its past while ushering the game into an occasionally jarring modern era, consensus is elusive. Be it whether games are too long or too short, whether a player is Hall of Fame worthy or even what constitutes a most valuable player, it's inevitable factions will take sides.

There will be little debating Beltre's legacy, however. And that will make for a glorious day five years from now, when his sustained brilliance is honored in the game's ultimate shrine.