When baseball fans hear about a Latino player performing beyond his years, the first thing that comes to mind is “doctored birth certificate.” Adrian Beltre received this very scrutiny, only he turned out to be younger than advertised. A regular since 1999, Adrian finally found his game in 2004 after years of underage underachievement. In 2005, he seemed to revert to form. The big question in Seattle now—is Adrian the eternal tease, or an MVP in the making? This is his story…

GROWING UP

Adrian Perez Beltre was born on April 7, 1979, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Adrian’s family was involved in the country’s two most popular sports: Baseball and Cock Fighting. Adrian’s uncle played briefly in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system; the Alou family, related by marriage, was like baseball royalty on the island. Matty Alou, the former batting champ, oversaw cock fighting in the Dominican Republic, and Adrian’s dad raised some of the top roosters. Felipe Alou remembers holding Adrian in his arms as a baby, and his father once told Felipe that he wanted his son to become a great ball player.

Despite the role baseball played in his home, Adrian’s two best sports were tennis and basketball. He showed talent on the diamond, but it was not until 1991, when he was 12, that he became serious about the sport. Adrian remembers the turning point being a Houston Astros game he watched on television. Shortstop Andujar Cedeno, a native of La Romana, was well known to Dominican fans. But third baseman Ken Caminiti was the guy making all the plays, and Adrian was entranced with how hard and how well he played the game. From that day on, baseball was his number-one sport.

Adrian honed his game on the sandlots of Santo Domingo, testing his skill against older boys and men. He thought at first he was destined to be a second baseman. Built like the other men in his family—skinny, but well muscled—Adrian was told by his father that he was best suited for the middle infield. But after two years at second, the youngster moved to third and fell in love with the position.

Adrian attended Liceo Maximo Gomez High School, where he developed into one of the school’s top players. In 1994, while working out at Campo Las Palmas, the Los Angeles Dodgers facility, he was spotted by scouts Ralph Avila and Pablo Peguero. Though only 15 and weighing just 130 pounds, he had a lightning-quick swing and electric throwing arm. On the insistence of Avila and Peguero, the Dodgers signed Adrian in July. He received a $23,000 bonus.

The rules on signing 15-year-olds were very clear: You couldn’t do it. Adrian claims he never knew this, while the Dodgers say they thought he was 16 when he inked his deal. A doctored birth certificate discovered years later cast a doubt on the organization’s stance.

Adrian continued training at Las Palmas and competed in the Dominican Summer League in 1995. He hit .307 in 62 games with good power. His performance earned him a ticket off the island for the following spring. Normally, teenagers coming from Dodgers’ Dominican teams begin in a short-season rookie league. But the organization had little doubt Adrian could handle a bit more.

When Adrian reported to the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League for his first year of minor-league ball in the spring of 1996. Manager John Shoemaker never imagined he was getting a 17-year-old workaholic. But that's exactly what Adrian was. Unlike many young Latinos in the minors, he constantly sought advice and criticism from his coaches, and spent several hours a week addressing areas he needed to improve.

Adrian was the youngest player on a club that featured future Dodger hurlers Eric Gagne, Onan Masaoka and Luke Prokopec, though Prokopec was an outfielder at this stage of his career. Adrian hit .307 with 16 homers and 59 RBIs, and displayed admirable patience, with 35 walks and only 45 strikeouts in 68 games. He received a promotion to High Class-A San Bernardino, where he hit .261 with 10 more homers and 40 RBIs. He was the youngest player on the Stampede by three years. Manager Del Crandall, who had seen a lot of talent in his half-century of baseball, had nothing but praise for his young third baseman.

In 1997, Adrian played a full season for Vero Beach of the Florida State League. He dominated the competition with 26 homers and 104 RBIs—both league-leading figures—as well as 25 steals and a .317 average. He was voted the MVP of the Florida State League and honored as the Class-A Player of the Year by Baseball America. No matter how enemy pitchers adjusted to him, Adrian readjusted within a couple of at-bats. At 18, he had the plate presence of a player 10 years older.

The highlight of the year for Adrian came in August at the Hall of Fame Game against the San Diego Padres in Cooperstown. Who should wind up chugging into third base but Caminiti, the man who changed his life. Adrian wanted to tell him all about his influence, how he never picked up a racket or a basketball again after watching him. But he was too nervous. He just stared at Caminiti, the reigning NL MVP.

When the 1998 season began, all eyes were on Adrian. Uber-prospects Paul Konerko, Todd Hollandsworth and Billy Ashley had all flamed out in the 1990s, which made the young third sacker the crown jewel of the Dodger organization by default. He responded with a red-hot start at Class-AA San Antonio, where he was hitting well over .300 and averaging just under an RBI a game. His manager, Ron Roenicke, assured the Dodger brass that he was no flash in the pan.

Los Angeles struggled to stay around .500 all spring, and in mid-May the team shook things up with one of the biggest trades in baseball history. With the defending champion Florida Marlins looking to dump salary, the Dodgers engineered a deal that sent superstar Mike Piazza and third baseman Todd Zeile to the Sunshine State. The Marlins turned around and dealt Piazza to the New York Mets for minor-league stud Preston Wilson and shipped Zeile to the Texas Rangers for prospects.

When the smoke cleared, the Dodgers had Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Charles Johnson and Jim Eisenreich—four championship-caliber players—and a gaping hole at third base. Bonilla kept the spot warm for Adrian, who was called up in June—the same month the organization fired manager Bill Russell and GM Fred Claire.

New manager Glen Hoffman played Adrian at third until Bonilla came back just before the All-Star break. After a few games at the hot corner, Bobby Bo went to left. Adrian made typical rookie errors in the field, at the plate and on the bases. But no one denied the talent was there. He had a live bat and an arm second only to that of rightfielder Raul Mondesi.

As the season wore on, the Dodgers faded out of contention and NL pitchers discovered Adrian was a sucker for the curve. Coach Manny Mota worked with him every day. In practice, Adrian saw 50 to 100 breaking balls. In the field, he got a better feel for when to go for the big play and when to eat the ball. And in the dugout, he studied how enemy pitchers were setting up their pitches when his teammates were at bat.

When the team installed some adjustments to Adrian’s stance, he lost his groove, and then let his poor hitting affect his fielding. As a result, Adrian spent a fair amount of time in the dugout that summer. When his average sank into the .220s, Bonilla saw more and more time at third as the Dodgers desperately tired to catch the Padres. Despite the fact they were battling for playing time, Bobby Bo and Adrian struck up a great relationship. The veteran would take his protege aside whenever he saw something worth explaining, and tip him off to the little tricks that only the veterans knew. Bonilla probably remembered getting the same attention from coach Willie Stargell when he was a rookie with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986.

Adrian finished the season with a .215 average, seven homers and 22 RBIs. His future with the Dodgers would be decided over the winter, as new GM Kevin Malone would attempt to move the injury-plagued Bonilla and the $12 million left on his contract. If Malone could not, Adrian would be ticketed for Class-AAA Albuquerque. Adrian almost became a Seattle Mariner that off-season, as the key man in a deal that would have sent Randy Johnson to the Dodgers. Seattle ownership nixed the deal before it ever got off the ground, however.

ON THE RISE

That November, Los Angeles swapped Bonilla’s salary for the contract of Mel Rojas. After a sparkling season in Winter Ball, Adrian went to camp with third base as his to lose, and he held onto the job with a solid spring. He joined an infield that included veterans Eric Karros, Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Young, adding pop to a lineup that also featured Sheffield and new acquisitions Devon White and Todd Hundley.

The Dodger pitching corps was anchored by free-agent ace Kevin Brown, with young stars Ismael Valdes, Darren Dreifort and Chan Ho Park behind him. With Jeff Shaw in the closer’s role, the Dodgers were picked by all the experts to finish first.

Adrian’s new mentor on the team was fellow Dominican Jose Vizcaino, a backup infielder on the club. He talked to Adrian about what it would take to stay focused and keep improving over the course of a major-league season. The advice paid off, because the young third baseman had a nice year for new manager Davey Johnson. After opeing the season strong, he struggled at times as Johnson moved him up in the lineup. Adrian fell just short of his goal of 20 homers and 70 RBIs (finishing with 15 and 67) but hit a rock-solid .275 with 61 walks and 18 stolen bases.

Unfortunately for Dodger fans, these number were among the best on the high-priced club. Outside of Karros and Sheffield, none of the other regulars met expectations, and the starting pitching behind Brown was catastrophic. LA sank to third with a 77-85 record, and the mood in the Dodger clubhouse was unbearable at times.

Things only got worse after the season, when it was brought to baseball’s attention that Adrian had actually been 15, not 16, when he was signed by the club. His agent, Scott Boras, had complimented him at a dinner for being so good at 21. Adrian corrected him, and said he was 20. Boras then jumped at the chance to get Major League Baseball to declare Adrian a free agent.

For a while, it looked like this might happen. Tommy Lasorda claimed Adrian was in on the phony birth certificate scam, and said the league should make him reimburse the money they spent developing him if the the league took him away. The commissioner’s office would have none of it—despite the fact Bud Selig declared two other Dodger underage signees free agents that same year. Figuring there was plenty of guilt to go around, Selig ordered the Dodgers to pay a fine, shut down their Dominican Baseball Academy for a year, and required them to pay Adrian another $48,000 for the bonus he would have received had he been signed a year later. But that was all Adrian got. Free agency was not on the table.

That winter, the Dodgers traded Mondesi for Shawn Green, giving them the lefthanded power they needed, and also jettisoned Eric Young and Ismael Valdes. Eric Gagne was promoted to the starting rotation, and everything else stayed more or less the same. It wasn’t a great team, but it seemed good enough to contend—assuming everyone stayed healthy.

Bad assumption. Everyone did stay healthy (with the exception of Devon White) but the Dodgers simply couldn’t keep pace with the San Francisco Giants, who outpaced LA by 11 games, and the Mets, who nailed down the Wild Card with 94 wins. The Dodgers got decent years out of most of their players, but only Adrian and Gary Sheffield truly put up the numbers the team had hoped for. Gagne was a washout as a starter, but otherwise the pitching was dependable. In the final analysis, the Dodgers didn't have the weapons to be a 100-win team.

Adrian finished with a .290 average, 20 homers, 30 doubles and 85 RBIs. He made up for a slow start with a torrid second half, particularly in August, when he was the team’s top hitter. Most of Adrian’s homers came on balls pulled to left, but his alley shots were inching their way toward the fences, promising more homers when he filled out. Still just 165 pounds, he had a way to go in that department.

Adrian again had his troubles in the field, often following brilliant plays with errors on easy grounders. By the end of the year, however, he looked more comfortable and relaxed, which also was a good sign for the future.

Unfortunately, Adrian’s 2001 season—which many believed would be his breakout year— almost never got off the ground. A botched appendectomy performed in the Dominican Republic robbed him of spring training and necessitated a second surgery to repair the damage. It was mid-May before he saw any playing time.

The Dodgers had another competitive team, with Marquis Grissom taking over in centerfield and rookie catcher Paul LoDuca stinging the ball at a .320 clip. But elbow injuries to starters Brown, Dreifort and Andy Ashby sent new skipper Jim Tracy scrambling for arms, and he never came up with a consistent rotation. LA fans watched in frustration as their club ended six games out—and couldn't help but wonder how the race might have gone had Adrian been at full strength for more than a few months.

Given the two surgeries, Adrian had a respectable year. Thin and weak upon his return, he didn't get it going until the second half, and even then he failed to regain the power stroke that had led to 50+ extra-base hits the year before. Adrian finished with 13 homers, 60 RBIs and a .265 average in 126 games.

That winter, Adrian lived at his mother’s house, lifted weights, and consumed enormous amounts of home cooking. By the spring, he was up over 180 pounds, and finally feeling like himself again.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, had the appearance of a different team in 2002. Sheffield was gone, traded to the Atlanta Braves for Brian Jordan and Odalis Perez. Kaz Ishii, a lefty imported from Japan, and Omar Daal, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies, gave the club three lefties for the rotation. Former Dodger Hideo Nomo rejoined the team, providing Tracy four solid starters even without Brown and his balky elbow. The retirement of closer Jeff Shaw left an opening in that key role, but Gagne filled it to perfection. In the infield, young Cesar Izturis took over shortstop duties from Alex Cora.

In one of the best races in recent memory, the Dodgers, Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks dueled in the NL West deep into September. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, there was only one division champ (the D-Backs, with 98 wins) and one Wild Card (the Giants, with 95 wins). LA’s 92 victories fell just short.

Topping the list of what ifs and what could have beens were the mere 10 starts Brown’s elbow allowed him to make. Karros, normally a lock for 100 ribbies, wound up with just 73. And Jordan, despite remaining healthy most of the season, simply couldn’t duplicate Sheffield’s numbers. Adrian had a less-than-stellar season, too. His power numbers returned to pre-appendectomy levels, but he batted just .257 and knocked in only 75 runs—and only because of a hot second half.

At times early in the season, Tracy batted him eighth, in front of the pitcher. The patient young hitter who skyrocketed through the Dodger system was barely recognizable. Adrian had become a notorious free swinger. He was no prize in the field, either.

That winter, Adrian filed for arbitration, but avoided the process by agreeing to a one-year deal for $3.7 million. The Dodgers were hoping he would finally mature as a hitter, but 2003 offered no evidence that he had. He was still wasting at-bats, taking strikes and swinging at balls, and getting himself out. The Dodgers became so frustrated that they offered a top minor leaguer and $1 million cash for Cincinnati’s Aaron Boone. But the Yankees dangled Brandon Claussen and acquired him instead.

No one was saying so, but some of Adrian’s teammates were disappointed the Boone deal didn’t go down. Sensing this mood in the clubhouse, Adrian caught fire the last six weeks of the season, finally hitting with the authority and consistency LA was hoping to see. By then, however, it was too late for the Dodgers. The Giants had run away with the West and the Marlins and Phillies were both far ahead in the Wild Card race. Adrian finished with a .240 average, 23 home runs and 80 RBIs. Sadly for the Dodgers, he was probably the club’s most productive hitter. Great pitching from Nomo, Brown, Gagne and Guillermo Mota enabled LA to squeeze out 85 wins despite an anemic .243 average and a league-low 574 runs. Half their games were either one-run or two-run decisions, which meant the pressure was constantly on.

MAKING HIS MARK

Adrian’s late-season surge kept him in Dodger blue over the winter, as the club ponied up $5 million to keep him in Chavez Ravine, and rebuffed offers from the New York Yankees to acquire him prior to their ARod deal. The other big off-season news in casa Beltre came when his wife Sandra gave birth to their first child.

Adrian spent the winter working out with Guillermo Mota, and decided not to mess with his swing. He knew LA’s new batting coach, Tim Wallach, would be watching tapes of him from the end of 2003, and wanted to show him the same stroke. It also didn't hurt that he hit well over .300 during the campaign's last five or six weeks.

The Dodgers took the field in 2004 with essentially the same players they had the year before. Team ownership changed hands in mid-February, which meant the club missed most of the trading action. New GM Paul DePodesta, took over a couple of days before spring training. When camp broke, a handful of fresh faces, including Juan Encarnacion, Milton Bradley and Jeff Weaver, were on the roster, but it was basically the same cast of characters (minus Brown, who was traded for Weaver).

The prognosis of the '04 Dodgers was not an encouraging one. The team couldn’t hit, couldn’t get on base, and its ace was now wearing Yankee pinstripes. The farm system had little to offer beyond 20-year-old pitching prospect Edwin Jackson.

All anyone wanted out of Adrian was a hot start. Finally, in 2004, he obliged. He became a line drive machine in April and never stopped. A bunch of those liners found the seats, and Adrian soon found himself among the league leaders in home runs and RBIs.

Adrian’s most noticeable adjustment was his willingness to trust his swing and use the whole field with two strikes. As a result, his average remained in the high .300s through the All-Star break. Adrian transformed himself into a terrific situational hitter, winning games with dramatic homers and clutch singles. Pitch recognition, a Wallach specialty, also became a vital part of Adrian’s transformation. Drills the ex-Dodger third sacker taught the team’s free swingers really began to pay off, particularly in the case of Adrian and shortstop Cesar Izturis.

In July, Adrian made his first All-Star appearance, already surpassing his career-high for homers. Not surprisingly, with Adrian sparking the offense, the Dodgers—slated for a fourth-place finish by many of the pre-season prognosticators—were battling for first instead.

Adrian’s bat stayed hot in the second half, as LA clung to the division lead. Looking to boltser the roster, the club pulled off a pair of deadline deals that added Brad Penny, Heep Sop Choi and Steve Finley. But many questioned the wisdom of the moves. The Dodgers traded away two of their most valuable players in Lo Duca and Guillermo Mota, and when Penny went on the DL with an arm injury, the critics chimed in even louder.

Things got worse when LA stumbled somewhat in September and let the rival Giants get close. The club entered the final three games of the regular season against San Fran with a three-game lead in the division. If the Dodgers could avoid being swept at home, they would capture the NL West. After the Giants won on Friday night, LA responded on Saturday. Finley did the honors, with a walk-off grand slam in the ninth. Adrian sturggled down the stretch, going hitless against the Giants.

That being said, he was still a prime candidate for the NL MVP. Indeed, to go with a major-league leading 48 homers, he batted .334 with 200 hits and 121 RBIs.

The St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, awaited the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs. Adrian went 2-for-4 and scored a run in his postseason debut, but LA got hammered 8-3. When the Dodgers lost the next game by this identical score, the series appeared all but over. Though Jose Lima twirled a shutout in Game Three, the St. Louis bats returned a day later, and LA was eiliminated in its own ballpark. Adrian was quiet most of the series, collecting just four hits and one RBI.

Adrian’s stunning season set him up nicely for free agency. The Dodgers made a run at him, but decided to spend their money elsewhere when Seattle upped the ante to five years at $65 million. Just like that, Adrian was an M. With their other major winter signing, Richie Sexson, the Mariners appeared to have the team to beat in the AL West.

Potential can be a dirty word in the sports world. Adrian thought he had finally reached his. Now he must prove for a second time that he’s the real deal and not the proverbial flash in the pan.

You don’t have to be a baseball genius to know how much talent Adrian has. And it doesn’t take much expertise to see the difference between the good Adrian and the one from 2004. When he's confident in his ability to make solid contact, he takes what pitchers give him and puts the ball in play hard.

Adrian has moved closer to the plate and closed his stance slightly in order to drive pitches the other way. Early in his career, he believed he had to pull pitches down the line to hit them out, but with more strength and experience, he knows he can get it out in any direction.

In the field, Adrian handles himself well, and in time could take over as the AL’s Gold Glove third baseman. He has soft hands, good range and a powerful arm, but still makes mental miscues from time to time.

Adrian’s maturity comes into question when he reverts to old habits, as any player is apt to do. In 2005, Adrian tried to flail his way out of slump. To return to form, he'll have to recognize what he’s doing wrong and simply stop doing it.