Beltre’s Future Full of Questions

It began a little before 8:30 Sunday evening, emanating from every corner of Dodger Stadium, the same chant that has reverberated off the hills of Chavez Ravine for more than a month: “MVP! MVP! MVP!”

With the Dodgers down, 6-2, to the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning of Game 4 of their divisional series, leaving them on the edge of elimination, the crowd wanted to bid farewell to third baseman Adrian Beltre in his final at-bat of the season, and perhaps forever in a Dodger uniform.

With a career season -- 48 home runs, 121 RBIs and a .334 average -- amassed in a year when he played with painful bone spurs in one ankle, Beltre certainly would be a viable National League MVP candidate.

But the bigger question hanging over the Dominican Republic native is how many votes he’ll get in the Dodger front office when a decision is made on whether to re-sign Beltre, a free agent.

Asked the likelihood that Beltre would remain a Dodger, General Manager Paul DePodesta said, “If it was up to me, it would be 99%. But obviously, there are a lot of parties involved.”

There is owner Frank McCourt, who, while insisting he doesn’t want to lose Beltre, must also determine how high he will allow his team’s payroll to climb. There is DePodesta, who must also make decisions on two other Dodger free agents -- pitcher Odalis Perez and outfielder Steve Finley -- and must deal with closer Eric Gagne, who is eligible for arbitration but would prefer to sign a long-term contract. DePodesta also has to worry about rebuilding a weak starting rotation

And finally, on the other side, there is the man who will set the market price, Scott Boras, Beltre’s agent. Beltre made $5 million this season, but Boras, who has called Beltre “a special player,” is expected to seek a multiyear deal worth over $10 million a season.

Discussion of such figures would have to wait for another day for Beltre. Sunday night, he was dealing with the heavy cloud of disappointment hanging over him after the Dodgers’ first-round elimination and his own disappointing performance in the divisional series. Beltre hit only .267 in the four games with one RBI and no extra-base hits.

“I’m proud of what I did this season,” he said, “proud of what the team did. I’m a part of this team. It’s sad. We didn’t want to finish this way. We wanted to go to the next step.”

Of his contract situation, Beltre would only say, “There’s new ownership here and I don’t know exactly where they want to go. Nobody knows.”

McCourt stopped to offer a few words of encouragement to Beltre after the game.

“He told me to keep my chin up,” the third baseman said.

And did he tell Beltre he wanted to keep him in Dodger blue?

“Basically,” Beltre said.

There was no hesitation in other corners of the Dodger clubhouse when the subject of retaining Beltre came up.

“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” Gagne said. “They should keep him, they have to keep him, they need to keep him if they want to win. Belly’s the answer for us. They’ve got to find a way to do it.”

Shawn Green was just as emphatic, but he also had another reason for hoping that Beltre would around next year for pregame batting practice. Beltre and Green have a home-run hitting contest before every game and it did not go well for Green in recent days.

“He killed me the last month,” Green said. “I want revenge.”

Beltre said he would have surgery on ailing ankle and wait for the offers.

“It would be a lot easier to get back to this level next year with him,” DePodesta said. “It seems we will be able to fit him in and still fill some of our other holes. [Beltre] is a top priority and I will do everything in my power to make sure he stays a Dodger.”

The ultimate power, however, is the power of the purse strings. And only one man, McCourt controls that.