HOUSTON -- Carlos Correa grew up in Puerto Rico idolizing Carlos Beltrán, but he never could have imagined one day being his teammate. That happened in 2017, when Correa was an up-and-coming star shortstop on an Astros team that won the World Series, and Beltrán was in the final season of his storied career.
Correa emulated Beltrán as much as he could, from the way he carried himself on the field to the example he set in the community. Beltrán’s election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday brought tremendous pride to Correa, who spoke with Beltrán on the phone on Friday and congratulated him.
Beltrán is the sixth Puerto Rican to make the Hall of Fame, joining Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodríguez and Edgar Martinez.
“I look at the way he did it back when I was playing with him, and I try to emulate a lot of things he did,” Correa said Saturday at the team's annual FanFest at Daikin Park. “I was telling him how proud I was of everything he’s accomplished for being such a great role model for me.”
Beltrán put himself on the map with a tremendous, but brief, run with the Astros in 2004. He played 90 games in the regular season for Houston before a memorable postseason performance during which he hit eight home runs, including one in five consecutive games. He left for the Mets following the season and finished his career back in Houston 13 years later.
Though Beltrán's link to the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017 might have complicated his case, his production over a 20-season career with the Royals, Astros, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Yankees and Rangers was too much for voters to ignore.
“When you look at his last year in baseball in ‘17, if you’re going to make an argument that he had 19 years of Hall of Fame production, I don’t think one year of a mistake would rule you out,” Correa said. “When you talk about guys having a chance to make the Hall of Fame, I don’t think that one year should weigh heavier.”
Like Beltrán, Correa is in his second stint with the Astros, who reacquired him from the Twins in July. He immediately reassumed the role of clubhouse leader while making the move to third base because All-Star Jeremy Peña -- who took over for Correa at shortstop in 2022 -- is entrenched there.
Correa, 31, has maintained a residence in Houston and has worked out at third base all season, including a couple of times a week at Daikin Park. He said he’s taken more ground balls this winter than his previous five offseasons combined, with hopes of winning a Gold Glove at third (he won one at shortstop in 2021).
“I’ve been taking ground balls four times a week, as where in winters in the past, I was not taking many of those,” he said. “I played shortstop for so long, but I take a lot of pride in being an elite defender at third base also.”
Correa said he’s had a handful of lunches this offseason with Astros manager Joe Espada and provided his input on the direction of the team, which suffered a slew of devastating injuries and missed the postseason by one game in 2025. That snapped a streak of eight consecutive years in the postseason.
“We had way too many injuries last year, and I feel like when I got here, people didn’t have the routine that they needed to have in order for them to be able to withstand the whole season,” Correa said. “For the young guys and the people who have not been doing this for a while and have not been through injuries in the past, it’s easy to get carried away and just go through the motions on a daily basis, but there's some things we’ve got to do before and after games, and that’s something we’re going to implement in Spring Training. And when it comes to playing, once everybody’s healthy, I feel like our team is really, really good.”
Correa has also been working with new hitting coaches Victor Rodriguez and Anthony Iapoce, with hopes the team can return to its offensive identity of working deep counts and slugging more in 2026.
“The key is going back to those years where it was deep counts, it was a lot of walks,” Correa said. “I think that last year toward the end, we didn’t do a good job of controlling the strike zone, and that’s something we’re going to be focusing on moving forward.”