NEW YORK -- About two hours before the Mets retired his No. 15 on Saturday, Carlos Beltrán was standing in the back of the Citi Field press conference room when a reporter asked Andy Green about him.
Green smiled. The Mets’ interim manager, Green will be a leading candidate to continue in that role should he choose to pursue the job -- something he has not indicated he will do -- after this season. Beltrán, briefly once a Mets manager himself, will also be a leading candidate should he decide to interview.
It’s possible both men seek to become the team’s next full-time manager. It’s possible neither does.
“Right now,” Beltrán said, “I don’t have an answer for that.”
With that context, a day intended to celebrate Beltrán’s past contained plenty of subtext about his future. Over 20 Major League seasons, including six and a half with the Mets, Beltrán proved his value as a Hall of Fame player, becoming just one of five in history to hit 400-plus homers and steal 300-plus bases. Three years after retiring, Beltrán briefly returned to Queens as manager before the team dismissed him amidst an MLB report detailing his involvement in the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
That was then. Since the breakup, Beltrán has worked on television and in the Mets’ front office, rehabilitating his reputation with a fan base that has long expressed ambivalence about him. Not only is Beltrán well aware of that history, but he has recently become less reluctant to address it, saying Saturday: “It’s hard to connect with a fan base when the message out there is always negative.”
“Coming from a small-market team and all of the sudden being in New York, there were things that I needed to learn that I didn’t have those tools in Kansas City,” Beltrán continued. “Dealing with the media, dealing with the responsibilities, dealing with expectations, dealing with the ups and downs of baseball in a city like New York -- it’s the real deal. But I’m grateful. I’m grateful when I look at my career, 20 years, I played 10 in New York. So I think I did OK. … I think my skin got thicker playing in this city.”
Behind the scenes, Beltrán holds a less checkered reputation. Players consider him baseball royalty -- a person with strong opinions on how to hit and how to succeed, plus a Hall of Fame track record to back up his methods. That, according to countryman and longtime admirer Francisco Lindor, is why he would make such a good manager.
“If he decides to pursue it, and if they feel that it’s going to be the best thing for the organization, I think he’s going to succeed at it, to be quite honest,” Lindor said. “He’s somebody that’s very respected. But to be a manager, it’s not about respect. It’s about knowing the game and making the right moves at the right time and connecting with players, and I think he can do all of those [things].”
Asked directly about his desire to manage, Beltrán launched into a two-plus-minute filibuster, beginning with the idea that “right now, I love what I’m doing” and continuing with the notion that “being a manager in Major League Baseball is a huge, huge commitment.”
“I’m not saying that I’m not willing to take that commitment,” Beltrán added.
He also isn’t saying that he is. In the past, Beltrán has called managing a “bucket list” item for his career. His comments on Saturday were more muted, lauding Green for the job he’s done and noting that if he decides not to pursue the Mets’ managerial gig now, he can always revisit it in the future.
“I don’t think there’s a thing in the world he couldn’t do if he decided that’s what he wanted to do,” Green said. “I think he’s proven time and time again he’s going to be successful.”
Beltrán’s penchant for success is precisely what brought him and his family to Citi Field on Saturday, his No. 15 -- a number he originally chose to commemorate his wife Jessica’s birthday -- now hung alongside those of Tom Seaver, David Wright and other Mets legends. Several fellow team Hall of Famers made the trip to New York to honor Beltrán, sitting on the field as emcee Howie Rose ticked off his accomplishments as a player.
“I would say it was my best years in baseball,” Beltrán said of his time with the Mets.
Time will tell if those years will wind up being merely a first act.