NEW YORK -- Back in September, as Carlos Beltrán stood on the field for the Mets’ Alumni Classic and heard a similar volume of cheers for Mike Piazza, José Reyes and other superstars, his perspective shifted. For two decades, Beltrán had yearned to experience unfettered appreciation from Mets fans.
He has finally begun feeling it.
Next summer, Beltrán will enter the Mets Hall of Fame alongside Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine. Only 35 other Mets have earned that honor.
It could be the start of a banner year for Beltrán, who is also the likeliest candidate to hear his name called Jan. 21 when the National Baseball Hall of Fame announces its Class of 2026. Last January, in his third of a possible 10 years on the ballot, Beltrán garnered 70.3 percent support from voters. He needs 75 percent to unlock the door to Cooperstown.
And so at age 48, nearly 15 years after his final game as a Met, Beltrán is watching his legacy solidify -- so much so that in an exclusive interview earlier this month, Beltrán strongly suggested that if he enters Cooperstown, he will do so with a Mets cap on his plaque. It’s not something he necessarily would have said even relatively recently, given his checkered history in Queens.
He’s happy to say it now.
“I look at my career and the teams that I had the best years in, or the most time, have been the Royals and the Mets,” Beltrán said. “But I do feel like with the [way] that I feel about the Mets now, and how engaged I am with organization, and how useful they made me as part of the organization, I see myself as a Met.”
While Beltrán did play more games, hit more home runs and accumulate more WAR for the Mets than anyone else, he also spent two-thirds of his career away from Flushing. Asked if his current role as a special assistant to Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has changed his perspective, Beltrán didn’t hesitate.
“Believe it or not, brother, it has,” Beltrán said. “Honestly speaking, it has. And it’s crazy, right?”
From time to time, Beltrán still wonders why he never quite connected with Mets supporters during his time in Queens. The seven-year, $119 million contract he signed before the 2005 season is widely considered one of the best long-term free-agent deals in Major League history, and the numbers Beltrán put up along the way were Hall of Fame-caliber. Yet his road to acceptance was always rocky.
Like many high-profile, first-time Mets, Beltrán started slowly in his debut season. It didn’t help that five months into his tenure, he collided with Mike Cameron in the Shea Stadium outfield, suffering a concussion, a broken nose and two broken cheekbones. Beltrán largely scuffled the rest of the way.
Although he rebounded in 2006, Beltrán couldn’t escape the singular image of himself standing at the plate, bat on his shoulder, watching an Adam Wainwright curveball bend past him to end the National League Championship Series. Fairly or not, that memory stuck for years, even as Beltrán continued to put up strong results in 2007 and '08.
“I do feel like in my time as a Met, the fans didn’t get the chance to know me as who I am,” Beltrán said. “I feel like there was a disconnection between the message that was out there about me, compared to the teammate that I was in the clubhouse and the effort that I put on the field. So it was kind of like a sweet-and-sour type of relationship.”
When he first showed up, Beltrán said, he “tried too hard to fit in,” acquiescing to countless off-field requests that forced him to alter his baseball routine. It didn’t help that Beltrán spat publicly with Mets officials in Jan. 2010, following a knee surgery the team claimed he underwent without its consent. Beltrán’s camp disagreed, further straining his relations around Citi Field. Around that time, the Mets entered a fiscally driven rebuild, which resulted in a July 2011 trade of Beltrán to the Giants for then-prospect Zack Wheeler.
His Mets days ended with a strong trail of production, yet relatively little popularity or glory.
“But that’s the beauty about baseball, man,” Beltrán said, referring specifically to his relationship with Mets fans. “You go through experiences. You go through moments. You go through ups and downs, you analyze your career here, your career there, and you start thinking, ‘Man, why, in seven years, we never connected? What happened?’
“You start analyzing your time and your moments and my injury, the surgery, the things that I that I went through. In seven years that I played there, it never [felt] like, ‘Okay, let’s focus on baseball.’ I felt like it was always something about me or something with the relationship of Carlos Beltrán and the fan base.”
By the time Beltrán was named Mets manager late in 2019, time had softened much of that discord. But Beltrán’s quick departure due to his involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal diminished any burgeoning goodwill. For two years, Beltrán stayed away from the Major Leagues before returning to dip a toe in the broadcast world. In 2023, the Mets rehired him as a special assistant. Since that time, he has served as a sounding board for front-office members, Major League players and prospects, developing tight relationships with shortstop Francisco Lindor and others.
It’s a mentorship he cherishes. With three children of his own aged 10-18, Beltrán has temporarily set aside thoughts of returning to the dugout, though he’d be open to managing later in his career.
For now, Beltrán is in a place where he’s content with his job, content with his family life, content with his legacy. Last year at the Alumni Classic, Beltrán soaked in the adulation of a fan base. He took heart in the fact that fans -- perhaps even those who once booed him -- cheered without reservation. Two months later, the Mets announced he would enter their team Hall of Fame, setting him up potentially for two major inductions in one calendar year.
“Honestly, I do believe that it’s a confirmation of your effort,” Beltrán said. “I feel that in the years that I played for the Mets, even though I experienced some ups and downs, some injuries, just being able to be honored or recognized in the Mets Hall of Fame, it’s a validation at least that the time that I spent there, I was able to help the team in some capacity.”