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Carlos Beltrán will officially wear a Mets cap on his Baseball Hall of Fame plaque, according to a Tuesday afternoon announcement. Beltrán, who was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on January 20 with 84.2% of votes, will be just the third Hall of Famer to wear a Mets cap in Cooperstown along with Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza.

Over the course of his twenty-year career, Beltrán tallied 435 homers and 312 stolen bases, becoming one of just five players in baseball history with 400+ homers and 300+ stolen bases. Beltrán played for seven different teams, winning a Rookie of the Year Award with the Royals and a controversial World Series with the Astros in 2017, but he spent the bulk of his prime (from ages 27 to 34) in Queens. During his six and a half seasons in New York, Beltrán hit 149 homers, recorded 559 RBI, and stole 100 bases, while earning three All-Star selections, three Gold Glove Awards, and a pair of Silver Slugger Awards. In 2006, Beltrán helped lead the Mets to a division title with a stellar 8.2 bWAR, matching a Mets record at the time with 41 home runs.

Beltrán will be inducted at Cooperstown alongside fellow players Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent on July 26. Beltrán will also be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame alongside Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine at Citi Field sometime this summer.

The Mets will have a third former player representing the team on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Carlos Beltrán will wear a Mets cap on his plaque, the Hall of Fame announced Tuesday, joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza as the only players in the franchise’s history with such a designation.

Beltrán told The Post last summer that his plan, if elected, was to wear a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. A source indicated that Beltrán likely didn’t immediately announce his intention after his election last month as a show of respect to the Royals, for whom he spent 6 ½ seasons to begin his career.

Also, Mets officials have discussed the possibility of retiring Beltrán’s No. 15 this season, according to a source. Already, the organization has ceremonies planned to induct members into the Mets Hall of Fame (Beltrán, Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine will be enshrined) and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the franchise’s last World Series title in 1986. Team officials must decide if they want to have a third ceremony that would affix Beltrán’s number to the rafters.

Beltrán, now a special assistant with the Mets, played for the team from 2005-11 and produced an .869 OPS over that stretch. Some of his luster with the organization is obscured by the called third strike he took with the bases loaded against Adam Wainwright to end Game 7 of the NLCS against the Cardinals.

Later, Beltrán returned to the organization as manager. He was forced to resign after only 77 days as part of the fallout from the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing scheme. Beltrán was named as one of the ringleaders.

If Beltrán’s involvement in the scheme stalled his Hall of Fame selection, the derailment was brief. This year, his fourth on the ballot, he obtained 84.2 percent of the vote by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to gain entrance into the Hall of Fame. A candidate needs to reach the 75 percent threshold for induction.

Andruw Jones will join Beltrán as a BBWAA inductee to the Hall of Fame in July. Also gaining induction was Jeff Kent, who was selected in December by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.

Christian Zazueta is coming off a breakout season in 2025, posting a 2.41 ERA in 17 starts, 16 of them for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, with 81 strikeouts and 16 walks in 67 1/3 innings, his 23.8-percent strikeout-minus-walk rate tops among all Dodgers minor league pitchers with at least 50 innings last year.

The right-hander was named a California League All-Star after the season, and won Cal League pitcher of the month for allowing only six runs in his six starts in May, with 31 strikeouts against only five walks in 30 innings. His best start came on June 18 against Lake Elsinore, when Zazueta retired 15 of 16 batters faced with 10 strikeouts in his five scoreless innings.

Acquired from the New York Yankees for lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson in February 2024 — two years ago Wednesday — Zazueta last season won the Branch Rickey Award as the Dodgers minor league pitcher of the year.

Now just 21 years old, Zazueta is rising on various prospect lists this year. He was ranked the seventh-best prospect in the Dodgers system by Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs in December, with Longhagen noting an ankle sprain and second-half workload management by the Dodgers prevented Zazueta from ranking in an even higher tier.

More from Longenhagen:

The 2026 season is his 40-man platform year, so the Dodgers have incentive to stretch him out to 110-ish innings and push him to Double-A at some point to stress test that slider against better hitters. He’s on pace to make his big league debut in 2027 as a spot starter and then establish himself as key rotation cog in the years beyond. Our grade in this instance leaves room for Zazueta’s fastball velocity and command to improve thanks to his build and athletic traits.

Zazueta was ranked 12th by Baseball America, rated 16th by Baseball Prospectus, and 17th in the system by The Athletic. Kiley McDaniel at ESPN last week ranked Zazueta as the No. 156 prospect in baseball entering 2026, 11th in the Dodgers system.

Thomas Nestico at his TJ Stats newsletter this week had high praise for the minor league right-hander, including him in the “stuff savants” category of prospects he expects to make the top 100 entering 2027.

“Christian Zazueta may be the top pitching prospect in the Dodgers system, combining strong strike throwing with electric stuff,” Nestico wrote. “His fastball sits 93-94 mph with 14 inches of [induced vertical break], a shallow -4.3° [vertical approach angle], and excellent whiff rates, while his slider and changeup round out a prototypical three-pitch starter mix.”

Zazueta made one shortened (one-inning) start for High-A Great Lakes in August to end his 2025 season, so it’s likely that’s where he starts this season.

Carlos Beltranwill wear a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, becoming just the third player ever to have that distinction -- joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza.

One of the best players in Mets history, Beltran made a leap this year to 84.2 percent of the vote to gain election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It was his third year on the ballot.

"I didn’t do this alone," said Beltran in a statement that was released by the Hall. "Every team I played for shaped my journey, and I’m grateful to all of them. With the Mets, I experienced my greatest individual growth and success. I’m honored that my Hall of Fame plaque will feature the Mets logo, and I’m proud that every team I played for will be listed on the plaque."

There was a very easy case to make for Beltran wearing a Mets cap on his plaque.

Three of Beltran's best six seasons (2006, 2007, 2008) came for the Mets, while his other three came for the Royals (2001, 2003) and during a season he split between the Royals and Astros (2004).

Beltran had more home runs, doubles, RBI, and runs scored with the Mets than any other team, and also had his highest OPS during the years he spent with them (excluding the 44 games he played for the Giants).

In addition, Beltran made five of his nine career All-Star appearances while in Queens.

Beltran is set to enter the Mets' team Hall of Fame during the 2026 season, and it's possible to envision his No. 15 eventually hanging in the rafters.

The former center fielder and current member of the front office, Beltran signed in Queens ahead of the 2005 season, helping to usher in a new era for the team shortly after Pedro Martinez arrived.

In 839 games with the Mets from 2005 to 2011, Beltran slashed .280/.369/.500 with 149 home runs, 208 doubles, 559 RBI, 551 runs scored, and 100 stolen bases.

Beyond his offensive prowess, Beltran was one of the best defensive center fielders in the game during his peak, and won all three of his Gold Gloves while with the Mets (2006, 2007, 2008).

During his 20-year career, Beltran hit .279/.350/.486 with 435 home runs, 565 doubles, 78 triples, 312 stolen bases, 1,587 RBI, and 1,582 runs scored.

In addition to his Mets stint (2005 to 2011), Beltran played for the Royals (1998 to 2004), Astros (2004, 2017), Giants (2011), Cardinals (2012 to 2013), Yankees (2014 to 2016), and Rangers (2016).

It’s been a busy offseason for Nolan McLean. 

Outside of getting married, moving into a new house, and announcing he’ll pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, the Mets' right-hander has already made his way to Port St. Lucie, throwing a two-inning live batting practice session on Tuesday.

“It’s good to get out here and compete a little bit,” McLean told SNY. "Kinda got snowed in in North Carolina for a little while, so getting down south in the warm weather and (throwing) off a dirt mound is always great.”

A third-round pick of the Mets in 2023, the former two-way star at Oklahoma State decided to stick with pitching, which certainly appears to be the right choice. 

Making his big league debut last August, McLean was sensational in eight starts with the Mets, posting a 2.06 ERA, a 1.042 WHIP, and 57 strikeouts in 48.0 innings. 

Even with that terrific start to his career, McLean said he took time this offseason to “reflect on the season and see what I can get better at.” That includes working on a pair of pitches to make his already-electric repertoire even more dangerous. 

“I think I’ve just got to keep developing my stuff. Go out there and compete every single time, control what I can,” McLean said. “Obviously, there are always pitches that can get better, and that’s at the forefront of what I’m trying to do with my changeup and cutter -- be able to implement those a little bit more into my arsenal.”

Ranked as Joe DeMayo’s top prospect in the Mets’ system, McLean is a virtual lock to break camp on the major league roster, and figures to slot in near the very top of the rotation, a group that was bolstered by the addition of two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta. 

With Peralta and McLean anchoring a rotation that will also include some mix of Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, and Kodai Senga, and with Jonah Tong, Christian Scott, and Tobias Myers as potential depth pieces, the Mets’ 2026 starting rotation very well could be a strength of the club.

And McLean thinks the sky is the limit. 

“I think [the ceiling is] very high,” McLean said of the Mets’ collection of starting pitchers. “Freddy’s been around and kind of introduced himself to everybody. Seems like a great dude and obviously a great pitcher, so should be awesome.” 

Inspiration.

Last season, the Diamondbacks were the only NL West team with a losing record playing the Rockies at Coors Field.  I’m confident the Diamondbacks can improve.  How?

Runs at Coors When Playing the Rockies.

Focusing on the NL West, runs scored and runs allowed can explain why the Diamondbacks had a worse record when playing the Rockies at Coors.  The Diamondbacks ranked lowest in runs scored per game, and they ranked highest in runs allowed per game. The following table provides details. Data from Baseball Reference.

Deciding on how to improve, let’s look at two questions:

• Is batting or pitching more to blame?
• What statistics provide insights that point towards how to improve?

Most of the Blame.

Batting at Coors.  The following table shows two statistics.  Although they batted better than the Rockies at Coors, the Diamondbacks batters were below the average of the other teams at Coors.

The following table has a broader focus; non-Rockies teams includes all teams in the Majors. Data from Baseball Savant.

Pitching at Coors.    The following table shows two statistics.  Although they pitched better than the Rockies at Coors, the Diamondbacks pitchers had better than average wOBA against, but average runs allowed per PA of the other teams at Coors. Data from Baseball Savant.

The Diamondback batting shouldered most of the blame for the poor win-loss record at Coors because the batting wOBA was much worse than non-Rockies teams (while pitching wOBA about the same).

Two reasons Diamondbacks’ batters need to make adjustments at Coors. One reason is last season’s poor batting at Coors. The other reason is that Rockies pitchers at Coors are expected to make adjustments to improve their results. “Every guy [pitcher] is one adjustment away from being one of the best in the game, and there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit [pitching at Coors Field] that can be changed.” — Michael Lorenzen, newly acquired Rockies pitcher

The Blue Jays Batters Had Success at Coors.

Of all the teams who played at Coors, the Blue Jays batters had the best wOBA and best runs scored per PA.  How did they do it? 

This article from The Athletic led me to think contributors to their success at Coors included their “…contact-dominant offense…” and in August had baseball’s “…lowest strikout rate….” To check that out, let’s look at Balls-In-Play (BIP) per Plate Appearance (PA) and strikeouts per PA.

Although the following table shows that for the whole season (and especially for the Rockies-Jay series on 4-6 August) the Blue Jays’ batters had a better Balls-In-Play (BIP) per PA and a lower strikeouts per PA than the Diamondbacks, my opinion is that does not tell the whole story.  Also, I’m uncertain how batters could put more balls in play and strikeout less.  One thought is for Diamondbacks batters to swing more often than they usually do.

Did the Diamondbacks swing more (or less) often at Coors?    In 2025, the Diamopndbacks swung at more pitches at Coors (48.9% vs 46.9% of pitches) per Baseball Savant. That 2% increase seemed great until considering that the Blue Jay increased their swing percentage by 4.1% (increased from 48.6% to 52.7% of pitches). Asking Diamondbacks batters to further increase their swing percentage is not likely to be realistic.

Swing Characteristic. For the entire season, the Blue Jays qualified batters had a swing characteristic that was significantly different than the Diamondbacks.  While it is a characteristic of Diamondbacks batters that they intercepted the baseball farther than the average distance in front of the plate (per this AZ Snake Pit article), most Blue Jay batters intercepted the ball nearer than average to the front of the plate.  The following table shows the difference between the teams. Data from Baseball Savant.

Because of Coors’ high altitude, the pitches move less.  Therefore, the Blue Jay batters did not suffer a reduced contact rate that would typically occur in venues at a lower altitude.  My opinion is that this was an important part of why the Blue Jays batted better than the Diamondbacks at Coors.  Unfortunately, asking Diamondbacks batters to make such a large change in their swings is not realistic.           

Summary.

Last season, the Diamondbacks were the only NL West team with a losing record playing the Rockies at Coors Field. The Diamondbacks ranked lowest in runs scored per game, and they ranked highest in runs allowed per game.

Based on wOBA and runs scored per PA, the Diamondback batting shouldered most the blame for the poor win-loss record at Coors.

Although the Blue Jays’ batters had better Balls-In-Play (BIP) per PA and lower strikeouts per PA than the Diamondbacks, my opinion is that does not tell the whole story. 

Although the Blue Jays’ batters increased their swing percentage at Coors more than the Diamondbacks, my opinion is that does not tell the whole story.

Much of the difference between the teams is that the Blue Jays’ batters intercepted the baseball nearer than average to the front of the plate, while the Diamondbacks batters intercepted the baseball farther than average to the front of the plate. Because of Coors’ high altitude, pitches move less.  Therefore, when the Blue Jay batters hit closer to the plate, they did NOT suffer a reduced contact rate that would normally occur in venues at a lower altitude.

Answering the question of how could batters improve at Chase remained elusive. My opinion is that it’s not realistic to ask for Diamondbacks batters to make significant changes to their swings to address the factors that I’ve mentioned. On the other hand as an optimist, I’m open to the possibility of batting improvement at Coors.

With our minor league crew going through all of the trouble of doing their annual preseason prospect rankings, this seems like the perfect time for y’all to ask questions about it. So this Friday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET, we’ll be having another one of our Live Q&A sessions where our very own Gaurav Vedak, Matt Powers, Brady Petree and Garrett Spain will be on hand to answer any questions you have about the minor league system. I’ll also be on hand for any questions you may have about the Braves in general but also if you want to hear from any of our other writers, don’t worry — we will have another Live Q&A session later on this month so stay tuned for that as well.

In case this may be your first time experiencing one of these, here’s how it goes: We’ll throw up the post on Friday afternoon so you can get in your questions very early on. Once 7:30 p.m. rolls around, our writers will start answering questions and we’ll go for as long as the questions keep coming in. Maybe that’ll be an hour, maybe that’ll be 12 hours (not really) but yeah, we’ll try to answer as many questions as we can within a reasonable amount of time. Here’s a link to our Minor League Live Q&A session from January 2025, in case you want an example of how this goes.

So yeah, if you have any questions, start thinking of them and then once we throw up the post on Friday afternoon, get them in so you’ll be assured of us answering your question. This is a very fun opportunity to have a cha with some of the brightest minds in Braves Country when it comes to the farm system around here and we look forward to seeing you there on Friday night!

We’re trying a new series at Royals Review, a daily mid-day question of the day to hear about your opinions on a fun or pressing question affecting the Royals or baseball in general. Chime in and drop your answers below!

Royals’ history is full of great trades, and a few that still make you throw up in your mouth. There are the ones where they traded a minor leaguer that became an All-Star, but then there are the ones where they traded away a star simply because they didn’t want to pay him. There are many candidates for worst trade:

• Cecil Fielder to the Blue Jays for Leon Roberts
• Atlee Hammaker, Craig Chamberlain, Renie Martin, and Brad Wellman to the Giants for Vida Blue and Bob Tufts
• David Cone and Chris Jelic to the Mets for Rick Anderson, Mauro Gozzo, and Ed Hearn
• Bret Saberhagen and Bill Pecota to the Mets for Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds, and Keith Miller
• David Cone (again!) to the Blue Jays for Chris Stynes and Tony Medrano
• Kevin Appier to the A’s for Brad Rigby, Blake Stein, and Jeff D’Amico
• Johnny Damon to the A’s in a three-team trade for Angel Berroa, Roberto Hernandez, and A.J. Hinch
• Jermaine Dye to the A’s in a three-team trade for Neifi Perez
• Carlos Beltrán to the Astros in a three-team trade for Mark Teahen, John Buck, and Mike Wood
• Melky Cabrera to the Giants for Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Verdugo
• Esteury Ruiz, Matt Strahm, and Travis Wood to the Padres for Ryan Buchter, Trevor Cahill and Brandon Maurer

But hey, the trade that haunts you the most doesn’t have to be a move that was that bad on paper. Maybe it was when they traded away your favorite player. Surely there is someone haunted by the Mike Aviles-for-Kendal Volz-and-Yamaico Navarro trade?

So let’s open the old wounds a little: what Royals trade still haunts you, and why?