Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury News had a few quotes from agent Scott Boras who held court at the Winter Meetings.  Boras mentioned that free agent third baseman Adrian Beltre has 5 or 6 teams interested in his services and he should command a premium salary because of his defensive ability and his run-producing abilities.  He goes on to say that Beltre’s road numbers from 06-08 are on par with Jason Bay’s road numbers from 07-09.  (Baggerly confirmed these numbers and stressed that Boras was referring to Safeco’s unfriendliness to right-handed batters).

Beltre’s suitors will continue to grow as teams shift their incumbent third basemen or trade them.  Baggerly believes that the Red Sox are the team that are chasing after Beltre by moving Mike Lowell.

The Mariners are interested in re-signing Beltre even though Safeco Park is not friendly to right-handed hitters, and to some degree have deflated Beltre’s statistics.  Prospective GM’s know that if they have a right-handed hitter’s park, Beltre’s already good number will be great.