Artist.

It was Sunday, November 18, 2012, and to distract myself from the signing of non-roster lefthander Scott Olsen and the imminent addition of Leury Garcia and Joe Ortiz to the 40-man roster, I started to work on something for my son’s room.

Adrian Beltre had been a Texas Ranger, at that point, for a year and 10 months.

He’d been my #favorite Texas Ranger, ever, for about a year and five months.

The defense. The toughness. The big bat. The season he’d just had that was good for third (behind Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout) in the AL MVP vote.

The defense.

He was 33 when I started the painting, and playing like he was 25 (when he was runner-up for NL MVP, to Barry Bonds).

Now he’s 37, and playing like he’s 26.

He was 33, two years into a Rangers contract that was reportedly offered after Cliff Lee told Texas no, the Angels told Beltre no, and Beltre told the A’s no.

Lee is evidently done.

He was basically done nearly two years ago.

Lee is done, the painting is done (big props to Nick Pants and the good folks at Idea Planet for the work on the crowd), but Adrian Beltre, emphatically, is not.

He was huge again last night, homering and doubling and driving in five and making plays that few other third basemen make (and that Beltre himself wasn’t making as cleanly last summer) and raising his early slash line to .314/.368/.629, with more walks (three) than strikeouts (two) in 38 plate appearances.

Whether it’s true or not, it feels like his defense has already saved as many 2016 runs as he’s driven in (eight).

He’s in a contract year, as a camp happily slow on controversy reminded us for much of March. There used to be a narrative, before Beltre arrived in Texas, that he saved his best for contract years, but that’s not really true.

He doesn’t want to leave.

Texas doesn’t want him to leave.

But a meeting of the minds on the appropriate contract to replace this one is apparently a little sticky, because there’s not really a great contractual comp for a 37-year-old this productive.

David Ortiz signed a two-year, $26 million deal at the same age. David Ortiz doesn’t play defense.

Adrian Beltre doesn’t just play defense. He’s a wizard. He’s an artist.

He’s a damn treasure (hat tip, Tepid).

Nomar Mazara is the youngest player in the big leagues today. He was the youngest player on the AAA Round Rock roster (and the second-youngest player in all of Class AAA). He’d be the youngest player for AA Frisco.

Beltre was 21 months younger than Mazara when he made it to the big leagues.

He’s nearly old enough now to be Mazara’s father, and the two of them are wielding big bats and flashing big leather together for a team that’s bounced back from a clunky start.

Though their careers overlapped for 12 years, Beltre never played with Nomar Garciaparra (both played for the Dodgers and Red Sox but never together). He’s playing with Nomar Mazara — who, similar to Pudge, may end up being the better Nomar when it’s all said and done — and though their careers won’t coincide for a dozen years, they will both play for several seasons.

And that needs to be in the same uniform.

Scott Boras likes when there are not any good comps. That’s a center-cut fastball, a 3-1 cookie right in his wheelhouse.

But there’s got to be a number that makes reasonable sense.

And a duration.

A level of shared risk that can vest in the player’s favor.

Adrian Beltre may be the best bet in baseball, given any set of physical challenges, to make a contract option vest.

He can’t go anywhere.

And, unlike a painting that took more than three years and 464 Adrian Beltre games as a Texas Ranger to finish, he absolutely isn’t done.