The New York Mets have settled on a manager. The Mets have
named Carlos Beltran as the franchises’ 22nd field manager on Friday
afternoon, ending a month long search for Mickey Callaway’s replacement.
Beltran played seven seasons with the Mets from 2005 to 2011
where he hit .280 with 149 homers and 559 RBI, establishing himself as one of
the game’s best center fielder’s of his era.
In fact Beltran held the franchise record for home runs in a
season (41 in 2006) until this past season when Pete Alonso blasted 53 homers
his rookie year.
Beltran comes back to the Mets, the only team he wished to
manage in this year’s managerial cycle, have little to no coaching experience.
He retired from playing in 2017 after serving as a bench player for the Houston
Astros when the won the World Series that year. He got a lot of credit as being
a defacto “player-coach” during his stay in Houston.
After retiring, the Yankees picked up on that high
praise, and seriously considered making
Beltran the successor to Joe Girardi before settling on Aaron Boone. Instead,
Beltran got the role as a special advisor to GM Brian Cashman, a position he
held the past two seasons.
With no coaching or managerial experience under his belt,
the hiring of Beltran echoes a common trend in baseball, where experience means
very little. The front office runs the day-to-day operations of the team from
the General Manager’s office and his analytics team. Beltran’s job, in this
case, is to disseminate what Van Wagenen wants.
Unlike Joe Girardi, who would have been a confrontational
presence for Van Wagenen, the Mets General Manager goes with a safe choice,
picking a manager who A) will be agreeable to suggestions from the front
office, and B) is remembered fondly by Mets fans, which lowers the blow of
negativity had he selected Eduardo Perez, for example.
This does not mean Beltran can’t be a good manager. As
someone who is recently retired, he will have the respect of many of his
players who are probably familiar with his feats on the field.
That being said, Beltran has to establish a culture of
winning when he walks in the door. He has to be the commanding presence in the
dugout that the Mets desperately need, especially in a division where the
Nationals, Braves and Phillies are all World Series contenders.
Beltran wanted this job badly. He has spoken openly about
wanting to manage a baseball team, and now will be his chance on the biggest
stage of them all. The first order of business for Beltran will be hiring a
solid coaching staff, especially a veteran bench coach and pitching coach that
can help guide him along the process.
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