On performance alone, Carlos Beltran was an obvious Hall of Famer, one of the best all-around center fielders in baseball history.
That he had to wait four years after becoming eligible to get enough votes for election was not an oversight but a clear consequence of his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017.
In truth, that’s not an outrageous price to pay for such a blatant form of cheating, one that likely played a significant role in winning a championship and, when later revealed, sparked bitter public anger from opposing players, managers, and executives that, in some cases, still lingers.
Of which Yankees GM Brian Cashman, for one, has left no doubt.
Still, as someone who withheld a vote for Beltran in his first year on the ballot, as an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the sign-stealing scandal, I was glad to see that the former Met was voted into the Hall of Fame this time around, as announced by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday night.
I’ve been a Beltran voter for the last three years, and maybe it took longer for other baseball writers to get past the stain of the scandal, but it was time. He has paid a significant price for his role in the scheme, losing his job as manager of the Mets in January of 2020 before he ever actually managed a game, and that could turn out to be his only such opportunity.
Time will tell there, but certainly these are better days for Beltran. He has mended fences with the Mets’ organization after something of an acrimonious end to his playing days in Queens, as he was hired last year as a special assistant to David Stearns in the Mets’ front office.
And perhaps time has healed old wounds as well with the fan base, which never seemed to fully embrace Beltran for the spectacular talent he was, in part because of his infamous take of the strike-three curve ball from Adam Wainwright to end the 2006 NLCS with the bases loaded.
Beltran himself recently indicated as much, telling MLB.com he felt a “disconnection” with the fans during his seven years playing with the Mets, perhaps in part because of his quiet nature, but now feels embraced by the organization, to the point where he’ll likely have a Mets’ cap on his plaque in Cooperstown.
For while he broke in with the Kansas City Royals in 1998, playing his first six seasons there, and played with a total of seven teams during his 20-year career, Beltran did have some of his best years with the Mets and now seems to feel good about his role in the organization as well.
“I see myself as a Met,” he told MLB.com.
If Beltran does go into the Hall as a Met, he’ll be only the third player to do so, joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza.
As such, he’ll be recognized for a brilliant career whose outstanding center field defense, combined with his impactful offense, left no doubt about his HOF qualifications.
Most notably, Beltran is one of five players in baseball history with at least 500 doubles, 400 home runs, and 300 stolen bases. The others are Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez.
In addition, Beltran is one of baseball’s best postseason hitters, putting up a 1.021 OPS over 65 games that included 16 home runs, eight of them in that unforgettable 2004 October with the Houston Astros that led to him signing a $119 million free-agent contract with the Mets.
Also worth noting, Beltran has the best stolen-base percentage of any player in history in the live ball era (since 1920) with at least 200 steals. He stole 312 bases while being caught 48 times, an 86.4 percent success rate that is slightly higher than Trea Turner, Mike Trout, and Tim Raines at the top of the list.
“That stolen base percentage speaks to how smart Carlos was as a player,” former Mets manager Terry Collins once told me. “He just had a feel for the game that you couldn’t teach. His instincts were almost never wrong. He could read situations. He could read pitchers. He could see things pitchers were doing to tip a pitch that other guys couldn’t see. It was all part of what made him such a special player.”
Beltran will always be one of Collins’ favorite players, in part because he went out of his way to help the new manager establish himself with the Mets in 2010, even volunteering to move from center field to right field at one point for the good of the ballclub.
“He was willing to do whatever would help us win,” Collins told me. “When a guy of his stature is willing to do that, it makes it a lot easier for the manager to get other guys to buy in. I’ll always appreciate how much he helped me.”
As such, Collins took offense when Beltran was singled out as the ringleader of sorts in the sign-stealing scandal with the Astros, as the only player named in MLB’s investigative report.
"Carlos was an easy scapegoat because he was retiring that year,” Collins said recently. “I’ll just be thrilled when he’s finally in the Hall of Fame because he’s very deserving, both professionally and personally.”
Beltran is in now, and certainly Collins’ sentiment is shared by plenty of Mets fans. It likely was always a minority that couldn’t let go of the Wainwright strikeout, albeit a vocal minority, and as the years have passed, there has been a growing sense that most fans are happy to recognize that Beltran is an all-time great Met.
He was already scheduled to be inducted into the Mets’ Hall of Fame in 2026. Now he’ll have his day in Cooperstown this year as well. For Beltran, times indeed have officially changed.
