Beltre’s Limitless Potential Still Dodgers’ Greatest Frustration

At 5:10 p.m. Thursday, the ball sailed into the orange left-field seats.

Clank. “Look at that,” said Jim Tracy, shaking his head.

At 8:22 p.m. Thursday, with the tying run on second base, the ball skidded into the shortstop’s glove.

Clunk. Yep. Look at that.

So epitomizes the dilemma facing the Dodgers and a 24-year-old third baseman who is aging like fine bananas.

Will Adrian Beltre ever grow up?

And if so, will it happen here?

The Dodgers have waited through nine years, six big-league seasons, one birthday scandal, one near-death abdominal crisis and countless arched eyebrows.

They have bypassed Scott Rolen, Robin Ventura, David Bell, Jeff Kent and every primal dealing urge known to baseball man.

He enrages. He enchants. He slaps balls off walls. He swings at balls in the dirt. He makes diving catches. He makes dumb throws.

They must trade him. But how can they trade him?

He is their chief reason for hair pulling. But isn’t he also one of their greatest hopes?

For now, the only thing that scares the Dodgers more than watching Beltre play is the thought of watching him play somewhere else.

For now.

But their patience is growing as thin as Tracy’s stare.

And their attitude is growing as furious as Beltre’s eighth-inning swing in Thursday’s 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.

With two runners on base and Beltre representing the tying run at the plate, he struck out flailing on a pitch that landed somewhere near Chinatown.

It was a sight so familiar to Dodger Stadium fans, they barely even booed.

Before Thursday’s game, Beltre was hitting .204 with as many strikeouts (11) as extra-base hits, walks and RBIs combined.

Oh, and did we say he was tied for the team lead with four errors?

The season is barely two weeks old, and already the Dodgers have tried seemingly everything, from a two-game benching to a batting cage session with Tracy.

Yeah, the career three-homer, 14-RBI Tracy.

Next thing you know, they will be asking Eric Gagne to teach him to shave.

Beltre has taken it all with the sort of stride that eludes him in the batter’s box.

He says he understands the concern. He says he appreciates the help.

But he wonders when it’s all going to end.

“Every year here, I have to handle something,” he said Thursday. “I’m, what do you call it, a pushover?”

Spend time with Beltre and you realize there is more than one reason that his career batting average is nearly 50 points higher on the road.

It’s not just Dodger Stadium. It’s Dodger pressure.

“Every year they say I’m the key to the team, and I don’t get it,” he said. “It takes 25 guys doesn’t it? A couple of years ago I play well the whole year, and we don’t win, so what does that say?”

About his fielding, he shakes his head even harder.

“The mistakes I make are because I try to make the great plays,” he said. “I could lay back and not go for balls. But if you want the great plays, you’ll have to take some mistakes.”

He has actually played well in two seasons, his 21-homer, 80-RBI average in 2000 and 2002 ranking him in the top half of the league’s third basemen.

But the Dodgers expect more and expect it more consistently, and who can blame them?

Scouts have scribbled notepads full of his potential. The Dodger folks in the Dominican Republic were so enamored of him that they signed him when he was 15. It got them in trouble, but it got them a third baseman for life.

Or so they thought.

Some believe the Dodgers pushed him to the major leagues too soon, with no triple A and only 64 games of double A.

Others think they pampered him too much once he arrived, never forcing him to acquire the work habits that are now required.

Because he arrived here in 1998, one could argue he was a victim of the chaos surrounding the changing Dodger regimes, from O’Malley to Fox, from steadiness to Malone, a prospect pushed too fast by people who had no idea.

“I’d just like to see him become the player he can be,” Tracy said. “It’s about consistency. It’s about doing the same things every day.”

Beltre, who would be a perfect No. 2 hitter if he had better plate discipline, said it’s hard to be consistent batting sixth with little power protection.

Said Beltre: “The guys behind me are great hitter, but they’re not big producers, and it’s hard for me to produce that way.”

Said Tracy: “I’d like to see him force my hand on that one. Make it impossible for me not to bat him second.”

The two men met Tuesday in Tracy’s office after Beltre was informed that he was being benched for the first two games of the Padre series.

Unlike Fred McGriff, who reacted to his recent benching with anger, Beltre showed mostly resignation.

“I don’t yell like other guys, I respect my elders,” Beltre said. “I know he’s doing this to help me. Whether he’s right or wrong, I don’t know.”

The Dodgers wanted him to spend more time in the batting cage. They wonder if he does that enough.

The Dodgers wanted him to focus on hitting as a science instead of a swat meet. They don’t think he does that enough, either.

Beltre says all the help can be suffocating.

“I was trying to work on hitting just to right field and it messed me up,” he said. “I need to stick with trying to hit the ball up the middle. I’ll keep trying. I don’t care what people upstairs or outside think.”

Some think he should stay. Other think he should go. The only thing everyone agrees on is that the Dodgers can still wait. But for how long?

The draining saga is aging everyone, it seems, but Adrian Beltre.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at Bill.Plaschke@latimes.com.