In a post to his blog on the NY Post, Joel Sherman says that Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran is furious with the Mets and that he may be looking out for “number one” in 2010 as far as his return from injury. Sherman writes,
When might Carlos Beltran get on a major league field? Beltran is furious with the Mets and how they have publicly handled his surgery. He wonders if he should have been playing last year (in other words, was he properly diagnosed?). More important, he pushed to initially play in pain and then rush back in a lost season.
The Mets probably should not expect Beltran to prioritize the team this time around. He turns 33 in April. His contract walk year is 2011. So I expect that Beltran will take care of No. 1 and make sure he does not do anything to hurt himself for a 2011 salary-drive season.
First of all, unless your name is J.J. Putz, I think all ballplayers look out for number one. However, I do believe that the Mets may have seriously damaged their relationship with the all-star center fielder, and they may have set Beltran upon a course that will ultimately lead him to another team.
I don’t expect Beltran to even attempt a minor league rehab until he is absolutely 100% recovered from the knee surgery. Once he begins rehab, even the slightest twinge will have him back on the DL. Whereas last season, Beltran was willing to play in some pain to help the team, don’t expect that to happen this season. Especially with Scott Boras calling the shots. Any willingness to go out of his way to help the Mets has been shattered by the Mets inept handling of his injury last season, and last month’s surgery fiasco.
There’s a good chance that the estimated 12-16 weeks Beltran was expected to miss is actually a best case scenario and that his eventual return could come sometime in July rather than in May or June. When he does finally return, look for Beltran to quickly get back to his pre-injury form in preparation for his walk year next season and his last chance for a big multi-year deal.
Yep, the Mess Management still licking their wounds in which Beltran put more salt on it.
Joel Sherman’s post is purely conjecture. There are no quotes or sources for his information. Beltran may or may not be “furious” at the Mets. And he may or may not come back in 12-16 weeks. But there is nothing in Sherman’s post which would lead you to believe that he knows anything specific about Beltran’s situation, rehab, or future
Sherman was the reporter who broke the story about Beltran’s surgery and has always has access to the players and agents. How do you know his story is conjencture? Obviously he was the only one who knew the details about the surgery in the first place.
I don’t dismiss it. How would you feel if you were Carlos? Anyone would be upset over the misdiagnosis, wrong treatment, play/don’t play decisions, surgery pr squabble ect ect ect.
t, it’s totally erroneous BS inas much as he was cleared by his personal Colorado Dr prior to playing late last season.
Based on his current post, he does not name any sources or have any quotes. There is no quote from Boras or from Beltran. Sherman says Beltran “may be looking out for #1″. Doesn’t that sount like conjecture?
Like I said, Beltran may be angry and has a right to not play until he is fully recovered.
Beltran had already seen Dr. Richard Steadman last July for a 2nd opinion. And Steadman supported the original diagnosis of a bone bruise and that micro fracture surgery was not necessary at the time.
Here’s a few quotes by Beltran
8/23/09 – “”I’m a ballplayer. I want to get back,” Beltran said. “It’s no fun being able to sit down and not do anything. This is what I love to do, and that’s why I’m rehabbing the way I am.”
9/8/09 – The center fielder, however, never contemplated sitting out the rest of the season, even with the Mets far from the playoff hunt. Asked why he came back, Beltran responded, “Why not? This is my job.”
I think Beltran wants to play and get back as soon as possible.
I just wanted to add that after some researching, not only did Sherman break this story, he was the one that announced it on SNY, and Metsmerised site actually credited him with breaking the story.
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2010/01/carlos-beltran-out-8-12-weeks.html
Obviously, Sherman has contact with Beltran and Boras.
I would believe Joel Sherman over guys like Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal anyday. Sherman was also the one who reported that Beltran was extremely upset with how the Mets handled the bone bruise last season in what was a Post Exclusive. It turned out that he was right about that too.
Anyway, I have no doubt that Beltran will bolt after the 2011 season, where as last off season two stories ran that Beltran wanted to end his acreer with the Mets and was hoping to sign an extension, there have been no such stories this off season.
I wouldn’t write off the possibility that the Mets will atttempt to trade Carlos Beltran by the all star break if he is healthy, and I have no doubt that Beltran will exercise his not-trade clause to block the trade. When a Boras client has a no trade clause, there’s no way they get traded unless a 2-3 year extension is part of the deal. In that case, the Mets will get nothing to show for him except the caliber of players you saw in the Billy Wagner deal. (2 low grade prospects)
Nester, how do u know what Beltran’s feelings have been? That Sherman supposedly was correct? Where was the direct interview with Beltran, not Bore-ass? If u believe Bore-ass as a source, I’ve got wonderful lake frontage in Fl for u & some hillside property in SoCal.
Why would Bore-ass lie or misrepresent? negotiating an extension is best when u have options to peddle like
If Carlos exceeds in ’10 Agent can provlaim what a great team player he is putting aside his bad feelings
If Carlos tanks, it was the Met’s fault in screwing him up…
Remember Yanks don’t want to play with him if they can help it. Texas is under new ownership. Dodgers are undergoing ownership marital issues disrupting additional investments & Moreno in Anaheim is rethinking his plan.
It seems that Joel Sherman is just another “sheep”. It’s fashionable to pile on the Mets right now so he’s following the crowd. Does he have a history of doing this short of thing?
Darn media! Here they go again. Why don’t they leave the Mets alone? They made a big deal out of the Bernazard thing and now he’s gone. And poor Omar was crucified for defending Tony and now is a lame duck GM. All beause of the media. Free agents don’t want to come here because they exaggerate stories about Putz,Beltran and Reyes.
oldtimer, ANGST SELLS TO NYM FANS!
Look, Beltran is an extremely talented player but has never been a leader or much of a clutch player. I think the Mets organization has to start laying the groundwork now to figure out the centerfielder of the future, whether it’s F-Mart or someone from another organization. Beltran will be 34 at the end of the contract and will be a diminishing player (he has Roberto Alomar written all over him). Let’s get a salary drive season out of him next year and let him go for the draft picks. I would even consider dealing him later in the season if he plays well coming back from the injury and if the team is out of the race. Like Delgado, it’s time to move on with this guy.
Roberto Alomar? You sure know how to ruin one’s day, lol.
100% agree on all counts. I actually thought they should look to trade him after the 2008 mini collapse. But yeah I expect him back in July or August and I’d have no problem getting a salary drive season from him and letting him leave for prospects. The problem is the Mets are dumb and I could see them overpaying to keep him. Hopefully they go with your (the logical) suggestion.
What draft picks, Fred’s standing orders are “ZERO ARBITRATION OFFERINGS”. as well as draft picks ONLY OFFERED WITHIN SLOTS!
As much as I respect Beltran’s talent, because of his failing hip and knees he will in all likelihood not be able to play CF at the end of this contract at anywhere near the level he has. At best, he’ll be a decent LF or RF, with a good arm but average legs. At worst, he’ll be looking for a DH job. Hopefully FMart can keep progressing and be ready for CF by 2012.
Steve, your conjecture on Beltran aside, I do not believe F-Mart has the CF chops u suppose. even at this young age of 22, most scouts in addition to myself see him slated for a corner. Gomez was/is a true CFer mot f_Mart. I’d even prefer a Pagan as permanent Beltran heir. Angel’s only 29, mid-prime.
Unless I hear it from the player I will take with a grain of salt all these reports about Beltran. I also heard that Beltran was upset with his agent so which is it? Beltran pushed to come back in Sep and he always looks to be healthy when he is on the field but I think all this stuff by Sherman is just fodder for a slow news day until catchers and pitchers report, yawwwwwnnnnnn. Apparently there is nothing else to write about, other than Fernando having a great Carribbean series as well as Figgy but, hey if we can dump on Mets for health concerns or make a star player to be “furious” yadda, yadda, yadda, then that receives more attention than just reporting, that there is no news of importance to report which does not allow me to earn my salary.
The negativity since the season ended by the media and fans on all these sites is just getting you to ask, “How many times to do you kick a person when they are down?” For writers and pessimistic Met fans there seems to be not limit.
If he walks, he walks.
There’s really nothing that can be done about it at this point. The Mets had to have known that their handling of his situation could lead to this scenario.
Do the Mets really think that far ahead? All we learned out of that incident is that John Ricco is every bit incompetent as Omar.
Any reason why Carlos decided to wait until now to get the surgery on his knee? Why didn’t he do this once the 2009 season was over?
I think he purposely planned this to avoid spring training and that he can start in the mid season. Something definitely has to change with a player’s salary if they elect to delay their jobs for whatever reason. The team nor the insurance company should not be obligated to pay that person’s salary until he is 100% ready.
The Mets told him to rehab. He was following their plan until he said “its not getting better”.
I think Carlos Beltran is turning into another Juan Gonzalez type of player, great potential to be a Hall of Fame candidate,but blew it with his stints into the disable list…I think he is being wrongfully advise and he should take a look at his career, he is going down with his stats and he does not have a World Series Ring to show for all that money that he is being pay…I feel sorry for this guy all he cares about is money and he is letting our team down, maybe he should play for the Yankees…
Dude, Juan Gonzalez wasn’t a potential hall of famer, he was a one dimensional player who was called out by others as a steroid user.
Good for him. If my bosses asked me to play hurt two years in a row I would also be pissed. We are not talking abut a hangnail here. We should have traded this guy. I like him but he will not be part of any solution and we should have gotten something for him last winter. No– this is not 20-20 hindsight. I have been in favor of trading Beltran (and Reyes) for a couple of years. Problem is I do not want a talent evaluator like Omar doing it. The line that Omar is a good talent evaluator came from the same father and son team who thought Art Howe lit up the room. Omar is not a good talent evaluator. Just look at the way he has constructed our pitching staff and our bench; look at how he has handled injury replacements. He does not do the legwork and his scouts suck. Having said that, it may be too late to get something good for Beltran, anyway, even if they nurse him slowly back into the lineup and he produces, and teams are thinking about him for a pennant run, because the mets FO has made him mad enough to let everyone know about it. So no one will give the value that we might expect. This organization is a joke.
Lets be fair to the Mets here. For all we know they may be showing restraint. If the team wanted him to pursue surgery in November and Beltran wanted to see if could aviod surgery then they have a right to be upset that he decided to have surgery in December without team input. Beltran is being paid over $18M per year and the Mets should have some say in how he handles himself. He is “property of the NY Mets”. If Beltran thought there was any chance of needing surgery he should have tested the knee early enough to have time for surgery and rehab so he would be ready for opening day or very close to it. The Mets should have been more aggressive when it came to managing his injury, but we already know this management team is poor at such things. That doesn’t relieve Beltran of his responsibility to manage his body and its needs to be ready to perform when the season starts. While the Mets should have handled this better, I see Beltran as a bit selfish in this. He didn’t make being ready for the season a priority and in that he let the Mets organization, his teamates, and the fans down. With that as a backdrop, I don’t think it matters how the Mets handled his surgery, he was going to look out for himself first regardless.
…as he always does. Excellent post.
I don’t blame Beltran for watching out for his health, it’s obvious the Mets don’t do it. His injury could be career threatening, he needs to be careful.
I wish him the best, but I still blame him for the called third strike to end the NLCS.
Let him walk after next year.The Mets pay him alot of money and he is not a winner.Great stats but when it comes down to it ,he chokes.Trade him,when he gets healthy or let him work his ass off for a new contract and let him go.Carlos Guzman or Kirk Nieuwenhuis or even F-Mat will be ready then.Plus the Mets are going to have to resign Reyes.Id rather them spend the money on Reyes and there draft picks then on a 34 yr old.
Isn’t this the same Carlos Beltran the NYPESS machine has labeled as uncooperative? When I first read this fishwrap account I as suprised there was absolutly no reference to a source for this report, is this merely Sherman’s conjecture based upon little firsthand knowledge about the player that doesn’t normally speak with him or other reporters? OR IS THIS A NICELY PLACED BIT OF PRENEGOTITION POSTURING by a desperate Bore-ass who’s facing an unusually hostile marketplace without his automatic deeppocketed patsies of NYY,TEX,LAA,LAD.
The Sherman article is a crock. Just more Met bashing by a racist tabloid rag posing as a daily newspaper.
I say let Beltran play until the contract expires….then see ya.
Carlos has been a hired assassin at best with unfulfilled potential.
He failed us when the money was on the line. He never had that “Strawberry home-run off the score board moment”.
He’s not a Hall of Famer..he’s the modern day player who played best in one playoff series, signed the big contract and lost the desire because he wanted to be a Yankee.
Beltran has never warmed up to being a Met, nor has he warmed up to the fans. And all he thinks about is Puerto Rico this, Puerto Rico that.
I’m hoping Miniya is gone by the time Beltran’s contract is up so we hopefully won’t have to worry about giving him a stupid contract that’s long on years and money.
I like Beltran, but not as much as true Mets such as Reyes and Wright.