Mets yet to address Beltrán’s status with club

January 16th, 2020

NEW YORK -- The Mets did not announce a resolution Wednesday regarding manager Carlos Beltrán’s future, a source said, after team officials internally discussed his status in the wake of Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Astros’ sign-stealing operation.

Beltrán was the only player implicated in MLB’s report on the 2017 Astros, which led to the suspensions of general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch and their subsequent dismissals by the club. Red Sox manager Alex Cora (the Astros’ bench coach in 2017) was also named in the report, and he and the Red Sox parted ways on Tuesday night.

In his report, Commissioner Rob Manfred identified Beltrán as a player who “discussed that the [Astros] could improve on decoding opposing teams’ signs and communicating the signs to the batter.” Manfred did not, however, issue discipline to him or any other Astros player.

Any punishment would come from the Mets, who hired Beltrán as their manager in November. Approximately two weeks later, The Athletic released a report detailing Houston’s sign-stealing operation, resulting in the MLB investigation.

When asked about Beltrán’s role that month, Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen responded: “Anything that happened, happened for another organization, with Houston, Major League Baseball. I have no idea if anything did or did not. But at this point, I don’t see any reason why this is a Mets situation.”

Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon is scheduled to make a public appearance Thursday morning in Port St. Lucie, Fla., for a street renaming in honor of Hall of Famer Mike Piazza. Beltrán’s next public appearance is not scheduled until Jan. 24, when he is due to appear at a St. John’s University baseball banquet. The following day, he is due to be at the Mets’ inaugural Fanfest.

A source said the Mets intend to announce a decision on Beltrán’s future well before that weekend.

Beltrán, 42, joined the Mets as manager following a 20-year playing career, which included a productive stay in Flushing from 2005-11. From there, he went to five other teams, winning a World Series championship with the Astros in 2017 before retiring.