The New York Mets etched Carlos Beltran into their history Saturday when they retired his number and inducted them into their Hall of Fame. But even as he and they reckoned with their sometimes uncomfortable past, their future together felt more pressing.
The Mets will need a manager next season, at least as things stand now, and they have hired Beltran for that role once before. They tried to hire him again this summer, at least according to Beltran, who said the Mets asked if he would be willing to take over as interim manager should they need to part ways with Carlos Mendoza. David Stearns would neither confirm nor deny that conversation happened, though no one has disputed that it did.
So as he met with media Saturday, Beltran — currently Special Advisor to Stearns — answered multiple questions about whether he might be sitting in that press conference room more often next season as a manager.
“I love what I do because being a manager in Major League Baseball is a huge commitment. A very, very huge commitment. And I’m not saying I’m not willing to take that commitment,” Beltran said. “But right now, at the position where I am today in life, I love to be a dad. I love to be a husband. I love to be involved into the Carlos Beltran Academy in Puerto Rico. And being a manager, you will not be able to do that full time.”
Beltran was unwilling to say whether he would interview for the job if asked, and he is not the only person to suggest that spending time with his family might prevent him from seeking the manager’s job, of course: Interim manager Andy Green has said he is reluctant to seek the permanent manager’s job for the same reason, though Beltran offered an unsolicited endorsement.
“Being honest, I think Andy has done a good job,” Beltran said. “He has done a very good job for the Mets since he joined the team.”
Green has built widespread respect in the clubhouse, and he would probably be the instant frontrunner for the job if he decides he can juggle the job and still make time for his family. Many people in and around the Mets organization have speculated that Green could still change his mind, though Green – relentless in his commitment to the moment – has not given any indication of that to players or ownership. Cohen and Stearns have both said publicly they still plan to conduct a search.
So it was in his job as the still-interim manager while holding his usual pregame media session when Beltran entered. As if on cue, he was asked whether he thought Beltran would be a good manager if he wanted the chance.
“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. I think he has proven Time and time again he’s going to be successful. But I say that with the understanding that it’s really his character that would make him successful,” said Green, who went on to heap praise on Beltran’s commitment and trustworthiness before wrapping with a smile. “… and at this point in time I have sufficiently sucked up to the guy in the back of the room.”
The legacy of that guy in the back of the room is complicated. That his induction happened days after an impromptu celebration of Pete Alonso and a day before a much-anticipated celebration of Howie Rose illuminates his unique place in this franchise’s history. With Alonso, and over months of Rose’s farewell tour, Mets fans offered support best described as unequivocal.
But Beltran’s legacy is more complex. He will be the first member of the Mets Hall of Fame to win the Rookie of the Year Award and his World Series championship elsewhere and be an All-Star with three other teams. He was never beloved here in the same way Mets fans loved homegrown star David Wright, never given the same benefit of the doubt received by Jose Reyes.
“I would say it was my best years in baseball, even though at times it felt difficult and it felt different – meaning my relationship, and sometimes how things went down on, I don’t know, the message that was sent out about me as a person or me as a player,” Beltran said. “It’s hard to connect with a fan base when the message out there is always negative.”
Beltran said he understands now that the angst is a sign of respect, that fans here do not boo players for whom they have no expectations. When he signed here, joining an Omar Minaya-led group trying to become a powerhouse. They never quite transformed, and he was remembered as much for what he could not do at the end of the 2006 National League Championship Series as the season’s worth of work he did to get them there.
“The passion of the Mets organization and the Mets fans is a legitimate one. It’s one you can feel. You can ask any player that have come from different organizations and have played for the Mets – it’s the real deal. And there is a process you have to go through,” Beltran said. “I was lucky enough to have a wife that is a life coach. And she used to say to me, ‘hey Carlos, don’t worry. It’s not personal.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but it feels personal. They’re pointing at me.’”
Beltran would have been the Mets manager in 2020 were it not for his central role in the sign-stealing plan that eventually disgraced the 2017 Houston Astros and the discipline that followed. Steve Cohen and his Mets brought Beltran back as a special advisor to Stearns in February 2023.
In that role, Beltran has stopped by regularly to talk to players, joined spring training and other planning meetings, and established himself as what Francisco Lindor referred to as “a big brother” for him and other Mets stars.
“When I say something to him, it’s almost like he’s seen it. That is good to have someone who went through it and talk to him — even things like parenthood. We both have two girls and a boy. He’s a great mentor,” Lindor said. “Stuff he went through, I’ve gone through it. It’s an advice role.”
Juan Soto said the same, that he and Beltran have gotten to know each other during his two years as a Met, that he understands the challenges of being a star here in ways few people can.
“He’s been big on me, helping me how to learn the Mets way, how things work here, how to handle New York. I only played one year in New York before I came here, and everything went well,” Soto said. “He was like, yeah, when everything is good, everyone is good. Everybody loves you. But you have to be prepared for when things are going bad. And he’s helped me with that.”
Soto said he thinks Beltran could “absolutely” be a manager for the Mets or elsewhere, but “it’s all dependent on him if he wants to do it.” Lindor, who said he lives on the Upper East Side because of advice Beltran gave him when he first came to the Mets, said the same.
“If he wants it, I believe he’ll succeed whenever he becomes a manager,” Lindor said. “If the organization feels that’s the right fit for us… if he decides to pursue, and if they feel he’s the best fit, he’ll succeed at it.”
Everyone asked about Beltran’s managerial future included the same caveat in their answer: “If he wants it.” Saturday, he did not speak like a man desperate to take the job again.
“I always say, in my heart, that if I stay relevant in the game — and hopefully I continue to be around baseball teams — I can think about [managing] later on,” Beltran said. “Right now, I’m happy with what I’m doing with the Mets….I try to learn as much as I can from that.”
