Carlos Beltran

Mets Players to Fans: We’ll be Ready for the Season

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There’s a lot of turmoil going on in Flushing these days with manager Carlos Beltran and the New York Mets ‘mutely’ parting ways over his involvement in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Beltran’s role in the scandal turned out to be more than originally suspected and there was no way he could take the reins of the Mets – or any team for that matter – with this stigma of cheating attached to his name.

The Mets will find a new manager soon and the players are vowing there will be no lapse in their day-to-day lives, which makes sense since Beltran hasn’t run spring training or managed a single game.

Pete Alonso, the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year and Major League home run champion who has taken a leadership role on this club, assured fans that the Mets will be ready come the regular season.

Pitcher Marcus Stroman is another Mets player putting a positive spin on things. From WFAN:

Stroman responded to Alonso’s post with a similar sentiment, “I’m ready to rock my bro.” Stroman, earlier, took a moment to reflect on the latest developments, highlighted by the firing of Boston’s Alex Cora, Houston’s AJ Hinch and Beltran for their involvement in the scandal.

 

“This is crazy,” Stroman said. “Truly can’t believe all this s- coming out in baseball. Just going to sit back and see how it all plays out. I know my thoughts but those will stay internal. I’ve learned that “no comment” is the best option at times!”

Pitchers and catchers report on February 11 with the rest of the team coming in  on February 16. We’ll see then if they really are ready.

Mets’ legendary first baseman and television analyst Keith Hernandez believes the Mets will be just fine.

 

Report: Carlos Beltran Out as Mets Manager

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Carlos Beltran will not be the New York Mets next manager after all. Sources are reporting that the organization has decided to go in a different direction after MLB released their findings in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal during their 2017 World Championship season.

Beltran was cited as a central figure in the scandal along with manager A.J. Hinch, general manager Jeff Luhnow and bench coach Alex Cora. Hinch and Luhnow were suspended by the league office for one year then were subsequently fired by the Astros earlier this week.

Cora, now the manager of the Boston Red Sox, stepped down this week before the Commissioner’s office could impose any discipline. Cora is also embroiled in another similar scandal in Boston and could end up getting banned from beabll altogether after this second investigation is completed.

Beltran was said to be safe, but the evidence against him have forced the Mets’ hand.

From Rick Laughland of SI.com:

There’s reportedly been disagreements within the organization about how to handle the cheating scandal that Beltran has been implicated in. If New York moves on from the future Hall of Fame player turned manager, they’ll be in effect paying three managers in” Mickey Callaway, Beltran, and the newly hired skipper.

 

It’s not exactly an enviable position to be in, particularly with the current ownership not exactly being on stable financial footing. Many Mets fans are lukewarm on the Beltran hiring to begin with. After his epic strikeout on an Adam Wainwright salacious curveball in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS that sent the Mets home packing and the Cardinals to the World Series, it appears Beltran will never live that down. Mets fans had Joe Girardi as their top choice before letting him leave their building without a deal and watching him sign with the Philadelphia Phillies.

 

The Mets bypassed several talented managerial candidates this offseason to hire Beltran, even though they knew this timebomb was ticking in the background. They had to know no matter which way this fleshed out that it would be a lingering distraction.

 

Shots Fired By Beltran’s Former Yankees Teammate Over Involvement in Houston

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New York Mets to interview Carlos Beltran.

The New York Yankees have officially entered the debate over what the Mets should do with current manager, Carlos Beltran. And it comes from one of Beltran’s former teammates.

Mark Teixeira Takes a Stand on ESPN’s Get Up

ESPN baseball analyst, and former Yankee first baseman, Mark Teixeria, had very choice words about the current situation the Mets find themselves in over Beltran being named in the commissioner’s findings over Houston’s cheating. The first words out of Teixeria’s mouth were:

“I don’t think the Mets have a choice either. They have to fire Carlos Beltran.”

He would elaborate further:

“The only reason Beltran wasn’t punished…, was because of that immunity you just talked about.”

The immunity was brought up by show host, Mike Greenberg, earlier in the interview. Discussing the immunity, Teixeria continued:

“It’s really a loophole for Carlos Beltran because he immediately retired after that World Series.”

As we know, no Astros players involved in the sign-stealing scandal were punished by MLB after the conclusion of the investigation. When talking about his involvement with Alex Cora:

“Him and Alex Cora were the main culprits. Alex Cora got fired on the spot by the Boston Red Sox. The New York Mets are in an impossible situation. There’s no way that Carlos Beltran, especially in the pressure cooker of New York, there’s no way he can be the manager of the Mets!”

He concluded talking about how the tabloids would eat Carlos Beltran alive “every, single, day,” for being caught in this cheating scandal should he see the start of the season.

Mark Teixeria was teammates with Carlos Beltran through his entire tenure as a Yankee, 2014-2016. Teixeria finished 2016 on the team, while Beltran was moved at the deadline. 2016 would also be Teixeria’s final season with the Yankees.

Should the New York Mets fire Carlos Beltran?

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New York Mets to interview Carlos Beltran.

The consequences from the cheating scandal from the Houston Astros were released this week and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred gave appropriate punishments to the club. AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow were both given one-year suspensions and then Astros owner Jim Crane immediately dismissed both of them from their positions.

A day later, Alex Cora (who was apart of the Astros coaching staff that season) mutually agreed to leave his position with the Boston Red Sox. There’s just one more person in this mix that hasn’t been talked about much. Carlos Beltran was just recently hired by the New York Mets as the new manager and is caught up in the mix with Cora and Hinch. Manfred has been cleared Beltran of possible discipline and the New York Mets are staying silent about it, but a decision of Beltran’s employment with the club must be evaluated.

I’m primarily a Yankee blogger, but I’m going to keep this as straight forward as possible. If Carlos Beltran is as guilty as the other names that lost their jobs or were punished, the same should go for him. It wouldn’t be the decent thing to do by the Mets organization if he was kept on.

I understand that firing your manager that hasn’t even managed one game yet would be an embarrassment to the club, but keeping a cheater as your head coach would simply be the wrong thing to do.

I hope that Beltran has nothing on him and is able to manage the Mets this season, but if he’s guilty just like the other names mentioned, there should be no place for him on a Major League field in the near future.

New York Mets: Five Possible Replacements for Carlos Beltran

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New York Mets, Terry Collins

Over the last 48 hours, controversy and rumors of Carlos Beltran stepping down from his manager position have been surrounding the New York Mets. Should Beltran leave his job, who are the best candidates to jump in and take the reigns with less than a month until Spring Training starts?

Terry Collins

His name either brings back memories of happiness or causes other Mets fans to begin to gag. Collins would be a solid choice in a one-year role while the Mets try to figure out their manager for the following season. He has a good relationship with a majority of the roster and was a key figure of bringing the Mets out of their chaos from the early part of the last decade. Collins is the latest manager to bring the Mets to the World Series and already has direct experience with the job as Mets manager.

Hensley Meulens

Meulens is currently the bench coach for the Mets and has been involved in baseball since 1985 as a player. His experience and knowledge certainly qualifies him to become the manager. Meulens has managed the Netherlands multiple times in the Summer Olympics and World Baseball Classic. Since 2010, he spent time as the hitting coach and then bench coach under Bruce Bochy in the San Francisco Giants organization. Meulens has respect from players throughout the league and speaks five different languages.

Eduardo Perez

Perez was originally one of the few remaining candidates who lost out on the Mets job. He has experience managing in Puerto Rico along with various coaching roles in the earlier part of the 2010s. As much as Perez would like the opportunity to manage, it would be hard to see him jumping out of a multi-year deal he signed to remain as an analyst on ESPN. Despite the lack of time he would have to prepare, the talent the Mets have on their roster may be too much to pass on.

Buck Showalter

Much like Collins, Showalter would be with the Mets as a short term option. His resume speaks for itself and is the most polished out of anyones on the list. Showalter’s last job with the Orioles did not end as smoothly as he wanted, and his older style of managing could be what the Mets need to get eyes focused on the product on the field, not off it. The seven names surrounding Showalter on the all-time wins list are all in the hall of fame, so he is not a wrong choice to settle on.

David Wright

The chance of Wright taking the job has to be less than one percent, but you have to make the call to ask. With all the negativity surrounding the Mets, Wright is the joyful and hopeful face fans, and the organization can rally around. Wright represents the opposite approach the Mets could take when compared to Showalter. He knows the media, the clubhouse knows and respects him. Much like Beltran, Wright is a former player with a brilliant baseball mine and exceptional leadership qualities. With all the analytics and Brodie Van Wagenen involved, how much managing would he even need to do?

How Lucky Did the Mets Get With Commissioner Manfred’s Report

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The NY Mets organization must be breathing a sigh of relief after commissioner Rob Manfred released his findings on the Houston Astros. Considering what was discovered in the report, and what’s coming down the pipe… Carlos Beltran is about as lucky as a leprechaun.

What Happened

We’ve all heard about the Astros sign-stealing scandal. The commissioner’s office concluded their investigation and found the evidence was OVERWHELMINGLY against the Astros. So, what ended up happening was this:

  • Astros, as an organization, were fined $5 million.
  • Astros, as an organization, forfeit their first and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.
  • Astros manager, AJ Hinch, and GM, Jeff Luhnow, are suspended for the 2020 season.
  • An hour after all this is delivered by Rob Manfred, Astros owner, Jim Crane, fire them both.

 

Why The Mets Should Be Relieved

Alex Cora, then bench coach when the Astros developed this sign-stealing scheme, was named in Manfred’s report as being one of the key players in all of this. As was Carlos Beltran, who was cited as being one of the chief organizers of the whole thing. Alex Cora is expected to face a punishment similar to Hinch and Luhnow for his involvement in the Astros cheating scandal, as well as facing serious punishment for his Red Sox stealing signs watching the feed in the replay room.

If Cora isn’t fired, which would be the hardest of hardest sales by Red Sox brass, he’s likely to face a minimum 2-year suspension. One year for the Astros, one year for his Red Sox. Beltran, in all likelihood, cooperated fully and completely with MLB’s investigation into the Astros, saving his bacon (probably). How do you come back from that as a manager? Being suspended from baseball in your first year as a manager?

Should the New York Mets Fire Carlos Beltran?

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New York Mets to interview Carlos Beltran.

The New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, and Houston Astros are the respective heel characters in their sports because of their tainted success. Whether anyone agrees with their methods, they achieved things many teams fall short of year after year. After A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora lost their jobs due to the cheating scandal, firing Carlos Beltran will do more harm than good for the New York Mets future.

Beltran was a player during the time of the incident, and if we are going to throw him in with the coaches, then the other players should be dragged in as well. The penalties on the Astros were weak, and as a long-suffering Mets fan, I would gladly take the penalties to get a World Series ring. My opinion would easily differ if my job was on the line.

I would like to hear the excuse for the Astros playing better on the road during the 2017 season, but that is another topic for a much longer article.

Give Beltran a Chance

What the Astros did was cheating. Beltran gets dragged into the whole mess because he was the veteran of the team who was in the year of his career. It was not his responsibility to stop the sign stealing. His duty is equal with the other 24 men who he played with. If Beltran received a penalty, every hitter who spent time on the Astros roster in 2017 deserves a suspension.

Beltran is still a brilliant baseball mind, and his actions as a player should not equal his actions as a manager. The Mets should try to gain every legal advantage they can because clearly what they have done for the last 30 years has not resulted in any resounding success.

Many detractors of Beltran say it will be a massive distraction with the media if he stays. It will only be a distraction if the Mets allow it to be. Beltran and the Mets organization does not need to answer any question they feel is not relevant to the Mets. We have seen the Wilpons and the organization control the media narrative multiple times throughout the years, so why can’t they do it again?

While everything is still fresh with both the Astros and Red Sox investigations, the best the Mets can do is lay low and continue to handle themselves the way they have been. If the Mets want to create a distraction and media circus, they easily can. Keeping Beltran and allowing him to create his legacy as a manager will be the easiest way to bury any doubts about him.

 

Don’t Expect the Mets to Fire Carlos Beltran

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New York Mets to interview Carlos Beltran.

After it was revealed on Monday that Carlos Beltran was a central figure in Major League Baseball’s findings in the 2017 sign-stealing scandal that resulted in the suspension of the Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, there was no reaction by Beltran’s current employer – the New York Mets.

The Astros immediately dismissed Hinch and Luhnow upon hearing the Commissioner’s office’s findings. Alex Cora, who was the Astros bench coach, and Beltran, who was predominantly a DH on that World Series-winning team, escaped discipline although the evidence against both of them was damning:

“Approximately two months into the 2017 season, a group of players, including Carlos Beltrán, discussed that the team could improve on decoding opposing teams’ signs and communicating the signs to the batter. Cora arranged for a video room technician to install a monitor displaying the center field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros’ dugout.”

Cora is also under investigation for a similar scheme he brought to Boston when he took over as the Red Sox in 2018 and led them to a World Series championship. He will be addressing the media on Tuesday but is expected to be eventually disciplined. MLB might be waiting for the second investigation to conclude before exacting his punishment, which could be a lifetime ban according to some in the know.

Beltran has yet to manage a game for the Mets and there is a groundswell now wondering if the Mets should allow him to do so. In my experience in covering this team, they most likely will unless MLB decides to impose some type of discipline on him. Then, the Mets’ hand would be forced.

But expect nothing from Roosevelt Ave and 126th Street (now Seaver Way) until that happens, which it might not.

From SNY.tv:

Shortly after being hired by the Mets, Beltran weighed in on the situation.

 

“We took a lot of pride studying pitchers in the computer — that is the only technology that I use and I understand,” Beltrán told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in November. “It was fun seeing guys get to the ballpark to look for little details. (In) the game of baseball, guys for years have given location and if the catchers get lazy and the pitcher doesn’t cover the signs from second base, of course players are going to take advantage.”

 

Asked in November about the fact that Beltran played a “key role in devising” the Astros’ scheme, Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen played things down.

 

“Anything that happened, happened for another organization with Houston, Major League Baseball,” Van Wagenen said. “I have no idea if anything did or did not (happen). But at this point, I don’t see any reason why this is a Mets situation.”

What a narrow view by Van Wagenen. Beltran is tainted goods here, and will be a pariah once Cora’s fate is determined. The Mets have to rethink this situation. The media will never let Beltran live it down and maybe the fans won’t either. It will be a major distraction all season long and the Mets don’t need any drama if they are to become contenders again.

Knowing this investigation could result in Beltran either being disciplined or tainted for life, the Met should have never hired him. Now, they’ll do everything in their power not to fire him.

The New York Mets Make it Official With Dellin Betances

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New York Yankees, New York Mets, Dellin Betances

The New York Mets made the bullpen move the Yankees couldn’t make one Christmas Eve, secure an anchor. Well, it’s not so much that the Yankees didn’t need to secure an anchor for the bullpen, they have about 5 anchors in the pen. But the Mets did need to secure an anchor. And on January 2nd, they formally introduced former Yankee, Dellin Betances, as a New York Met.

Why the Mets?

Other teams were interested in the All-Star reliever, so why would he want to play for the Yankees cross-town rival? In Dellin’s words:

“The excitement of being here with the Mets and the possibility to play for Carlos Beltran and play with this team excited me.”

Remember, Dellin was teammates in the Bronx with Beltran from 2014 to 2016. He also was teammates with Mets infielder, Robinson Cano, from 2011 to 2013 as well. Some familiarity walking into a new setting is comforting, especially for a guy who came back from almost missing an entire season, to then rupturing his Achilles in his only appearance of 2019. Having former teammates/friends in Cano and his new manager will do a lot to help settle the occasionally erratic Betances quite a bit.

Home Town Hero

Much is to be said for staying in ones home town. Hell, we all had suspicions that Gerrit Cole would sign with the Angels or Dodgers due to his Southern California roots this offseason. And for Dellin, it was no different:

“New York is in my blood. I grew up playing in the Lower East Side. I went to high school in Brooklyn and I played minor-league ball in Staten Island. In 2011, I made my major league debut in the Bronx, and now I stand here and get a chance to wear this Mets uniform playing in Queens.”

Not everyone can make it in New York, in either borough. And nothing works quite like home cookin’. I’ll miss Dellin in pinstripes, but the Mets definitely could’ve done worse (much worse) in picking him up. Best of luck. Hopefully we’ll reconnect in another October Subway Series.

New York Mets: Carlos Beltran Willing to Give Edwin Diaz Another Shot

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New York Mets, Edwin Diaz

Last season, the New York Mets thought they had finally found the answer at the closer position in Edwin Diaz. The defending American League saves leader was included in the blockbuster deal with the Seattle Mariners that made Robinson Cano a Met.

It couldn’t have gone any worse for Diaz and the Mets. He not only couldn’t get batters out, he was actually losing the Mets games they had locked up. It was evident in July that Diaz was not the same pitcher the Mets traded for. David Roth of Deadspin (bow head) wrote the following on July 8:

“He has already allowed more home runs and earned runs in 37 appearances than he gave up in 73 last year, and is allowing more than twice as many hits-per-nine this year as he did last; his ERA+ has gone from 210 to 74, which is striking even if you do not understand quite how that statistic works.”

By year’s end, Diaz had long lost his closer role and set an infamous MLB record of surrendering 15 ninth-inning home runs. He ended the season with an ERA of 5.59 with seven blown saves and seven losses.

New Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who played with Diaz on the Puerto Rican team in the WBC in 2017 and faced him in he majors in the latter part of his playing career feels Diaz is salvageable. He, his new pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, bullpen coach Ricky Bones and a team of others will begin the process of fixing this very broken player.

“He’s eager to get back, and he’s eager to prove himself, and I believe, as a player, that’s the right mentality that you should have,” Beltran said as per the New York Post on Tuesday. “Not because you had a good year the year before. It doesn’t mean that you have to prove yourself. I do believe that every single year you need to show up hungry to spring training and make sure that the people see the work that you did in the offseason.”

“We have identified some things that will help Edwin moving forward and I’m looking forward to talking to Edwin about those and working on those things right now,”  added Hefner. “Not even waiting to spring training and engaging him and trying to get him down a good path right away.”

The Mets will surely seek to add more bullpen help this offseason. The Winter Meetings are this week and you can bet GM Brodie Van Wagenen is not going to sit around hoping Diaz has a miraculous turnaround. The Mets are but to compete right now and they need a closer they can rely on.