Carlos Beltran Brings Promise and Plenty of Questions as Mets' New Manager
For the second time in 14 years, the New York Mets are pinning big hopes on Carlos Beltran.
The first time was back in January 2005, when they signed Beltran to a seven-year, $119 million contract to be their big star in center field. Now, the Mets have hired him as their new manager:
According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the Mets' search for Mickey Callaway's successor was down to Beltran and fellow former major leaguer Eduardo Perez. That they've settled on Beltran is only slightly surprising.
Beltran's tenure with the Mets between 2005 and 2011 wasn't all smooth sailing. There are still occasional grumbles about his looking strikeout to end the 2006 National League Championship Series. He later clashed with the team over the timing of his knee surgery in 2010, and he was thrown under the bus by owner Fred Wilpon in 2011. He was eventually traded to the San Francisco Giants during the latter season.
However, Beltran himself has no hard feelings. He turned down opportunities to interview for managerial openings with the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs precisely because he was focused on the Mets.
"I just feel like living in New York is the right fit for me," Beltran said in October, according to Dan Martin of the New York Post.
For their part, the Mets were surely drawn to Beltran out of a desire for a credibility boost. His 20 seasons as a player included nine All-Star selections and ultimately ended with him collecting a World Series ring with the Houston Astros in 2017.
As Astros shortstop Carlos Correa told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Beltran's final stop also cemented him as an obvious candidate to manage someday:
“I met him when it was his last year playing baseball, but he was like another coach and part of the team at the same time. He was playing, but you felt like he was a coach. He showed us the way of playing this game the right way. He showed us how to study other pitchers, how to study the other teams. He's one of the smartest guys for sure that I've met playing this game."
The obligatory "Yeah, but..." is that the 42-year-old Beltran hasn't done any managing since his playing career ended. That obviously differentiates him from, say, a Joe Girardi.
If Beltran ends up over his head in his new gig, it would make him no different from the guy he's replacing. Callaway also came to the Mets with no managing experience, and it showed when he clashed with the media and made all-too-frequent strategic misfires.
Yet because he spent half of his playing career with the Mets and New York Yankees, Beltran is no stranger to New York. And by way of his long-standing relationships with assistant general manager Allard Baird and special assistant Omar Minaya, the Mets can be confident that he'll at least have a strong connection with their front office.
This is an important part of any modern manager's job description, and the Mets front office in particular "expects to have significant input in how the game is managed," according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Certainly, that meshes with reports about GM Brodie Van Wagenen's more meddlesome habits.
Beltran, however, should be fine so long as he maintains fluency in whatever analytical language is coming from on high and if he can in turn communicate what's what to his players.
To these ends, Beltran spoke fondly of baseball's new numbers-obsessed culture—he lamented how he "played naked" without the extra help for much of his career—when he was in the running for the Yankees' manager gig in 2017. Hopefully, he also picked up plenty of front-office lingo in his season as a special adviser to Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
Otherwise, a bilingual speaker and an accomplished, respected veteran such as himself shouldn't have anything left to learn about how to communicate in the clubhouse or dugout.
"I feel like I played long enough to have learned the game, and I do feel I have a lot of things I can contribute to the clubhouse," Beltran said last month, per Martin. "Yes, the experience is not there because I have not done it. But I believe it's something that with the opportunity, I can learn."
Beltran thus fits the bill of somebody who can succeed as a manager despite a lack of experience. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all, and Alex Cora, Aaron Boone, Dave Roberts and Dave Martinez are living proof that even the greenest skippers don't necessarily have to walk before they run.
If anything, perhaps the biggest question is how much ground the rest of the National League East is going to give Beltran and the Mets.
To wit, the Washington Nationals just won the World Series, and they're going to have the money to potentially retain third baseman Anthony Rendon and ace Stephen Strasburg.
The Atlanta Braves, meanwhile, have both the financial flexibility and the existing talent base to pursue a third straight division title in 2020. The Philadelphia Phillies have been a .500-ish team in each of the last two seasons, but they have plenty of star power and enough money to buy more on the offseason market.
Given that they won 86 games, the Mets were no slouch in their own right in 2019. And at least with regard to aces Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman and standout hitters such as Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis and Robinson Cano, Beltran must like what he sees.
Yet the losses of right-hander Zack Wheeler and third baseman Todd Frazier to free agency open up two sizable holes in the roster Beltran is set to inherit. He's also taking over a bullpen that produced a grand total of 1.0 wins above replacement in 2019, according to Baseball Reference.
If the Mets really want Beltran's new position to be one from which he can succeed, they need to go get him some new toys. With their 2020 payroll already projected to far exceed their 2019 payroll, this will require them to either get creative or spend well beyond their comfort zone.
This is to say Beltran's hiring is merely a good beginning to the Mets' offseason. They now need a good middle and end.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference.
