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Carlos Beltran confident he can win World Series as Yankee

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TAMPA — Carlos Beltran sits in his corner locker at Steinbrenner Field, the same one his fellow countryman Bernie Williams used to occupy.

Both players put together remarkable careers, making multiple All-Star teams, winning Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards along the way.

But Williams has something Beltran still longs for: a World Series ring. Four of them, actually.

Beltran is entering the final year of his three-year, $45 million contract with the Yankees, and while he’s not looking at 2016 as his final chance to win a title, he believes this might be the team that finally helps him reach his ultimate goal.

“I think we can get to the World Series,” Beltran told the Daily News, emitting a confident yet not cocky tone. “We have everything here: youth, veterans, guys in the peak of their careers. If we stay healthy and avoid long injuries, I think we have a chance.”

Health, of course, will be the major issue for the Yankees this season, though Beltran is quick to point out that every team in baseball is in the same situation. Minor injuries are a part of the game, but major maladies — especially fluky injuries such as Mark Teixeira fracturing his leg on a foul ball last August — can cripple a team’s aspirations.

With their contracts set to expire at the end of the season, the window for Beltran and Teixeira to win it all in pinstripes is likely closing.

Teixeira earned a ring in 2009, helping the Yankees to a title in his first season in New York. But for Beltran, who has compiled a résumé that could someday land him in Cooperstown, the lack of a title continues to drive him as he approaches his 39th birthday next month.

“I know this is my last year (under contract with the Yankees), but I’m not thinking, ‘This is my last year, I have to do this or that because it’s my last opportunity,’” Beltran said. “I don’t come to the ballpark thinking that way. I just want to do my job.

“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. If it’s not, then that’s it. I’m not going to be the only player that plays 19 or 20 years and didn’t win a World Series. There are a lot of guys that played the game and never won anything. I have to be positive. I believe this year we do have something special here.”

For years, the Yankees have played by a World Series-or-bust philosophy, the result of George Steinbrenner’s insanely high standards. Beltran has no problem with that mentality, though he still considered last season to be a success given the obstacles the Yankees dealt with on their way to winning an AL wild card berth.

“This is an organization that wants to win,” Beltran said. “George created that high standard of ‘The World Series is what we’re looking for.’ There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s great when you have an owner who is so committed to that. When you’re an owner and you’re doing everything you can to get there and you don’t get there, he got upset and said what he wanted to say. But last year was a good year for us. Nobody thought we were going to be able to compete the way we competed the whole year. Even though we lost, it was a successful year.”

This winter, Beltran watched 29 other teams sign at least one major-league free agent while the Yankees sat on the sidelines. But that wasn’t a sign that Hal Steinbrenner wants to win any less than his father did.

“When I look at the names we have, I feel happy and confident that we have a special team here,” Beltran said. “At the end of the day, there are other teams out there that feel the same way. We have to compete. It’s about us going out there and competing. We feel we have what it takes.”

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