28
2011
What Beltran’s Move To Right Means For Mets
An article by 
Today, the New York Mets announced that three-time Gold Glove center fielder, Carlos Beltran, will be shifting to right field this season.
Beltran missed the entire first half of last season, which allowed current Mets’ center fielder Angel Pagan to show his skills at the position.
Beltran is 33 years old and entering the final year of his contract. Though it’s unlikely he will be a New York Met beyond this season (if he even makes it through this season), he will have a chance to help the Mets organization with this move.
This decision should positively benefit the Mets, and here’s how:
Since the decision was made early in spring training, Beltran will have plenty of time to adjust to playing right field. For his career, he has only played three games in right, but he will see extra reps each day so he can get comfortable.
When healthy, he is still a great defensive outfielder who can cover a lot of ground. Citi Field’s right field is quite an adventure, so having someone out there that can cover ground will take away would-be extra-base hits.
At this stage of his career, Beltran realized that it would be a matter of time before he shifted to one of the corner spots. Pagan obviously has more range than Beltran and certainly showed it last year.
During the first half of last season, Pagan filled in beautifully for Beltran. He was arguably one of the top outfield defenders in the league for the entire first half of last season. When Beltran returned, Pagan willingly shifted to right to accommodate the Gold Glover. Beltran’s shift to right opens up center for Pagan, who rightfully won this competition early last season.
The benefit of having two center fielders playing next to each other is simple: not many balls should find the gap. Both can cover a ton of ground, so they have a chance to limit the number of extra-base hits. Pagan idolizes Beltran, so the two have formed a solid connection.
The move to right 
should ensure that Beltran’s knee heals healthy and he can return to the five-tool player that he is. His offense should see an increase. Beltran may not put up 30 HR or 100 RBI, but he should put up good numbers if healthy. He will need to be productive since he is the Mets’ projected clean-up hitter.
As the center fielder, Pagan instantly becomes one of the leaders of this team, which has lacked a bona fide leader for some time. I may be biased for having played the position, but center field is the most important position on the field. Any ball the center fielder can get to is his.
In his first real test as Mets’ manager, Terry Collins succeeded with flying colors. Collins brought Beltran and Pagan together and put the decision in Beltran’s hands. Though Beltran said he would eventually regain the strength to play center, he decided that Mets would be best suited with Pagan at the position moving forward. Rather than telling Beltran what he had to do, Collins handled the situation perfectly and actually let Beltran make the announcement himself.
Despite injuries recently, Beltran has had an impressive Major League career. However, with Beltran’s move, the Mets established early on that the no one is above the team. Beltran’s move to right could be the first of several surprises in store for the 2011 New York Mets.
About the Author: Jim Mancari
Jim Mancari hails from Massapequa, N.Y. He recently earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Hofstra University. He is a devout Mets fan and takes pride in his team, despite their lack of success over the last few years. Like all Mets fans, Jim has plenty of hope. He also writes as the sports reporter for the Brooklyn Tablet newspaper and the senior editor of metroBASEBALL Magazine. Click my name to view my personal website.
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Beltran is no longer an elite CFer and he might not even be an average one. He should probably be a DH and even that is questionable with the knees. Can he still hit? Will he stay on the field? Will the Mets be able to salary dump him? These are the questions Alderson and Collins are probably thinking about/ Duda,Neuwenheis and Martinez are in a competition to see who gets first crack at RF when Beltran breaks down or is dumped.
he was hitting a ton last september, and that was after playing on them for a couple of months in glorified rehab.
so if they really are improved from last year, hitting does not seem to be the problem.
standing up to a full season of pounding could be though!
It also makes it easier (more likely) for the Mets to have productive replacement on the roster for when Beltran needs a day off (couple times per week?), since they just need a corner OF not a CF.
I can see Beltran driving in over 100 runs this year – he just has to stay healthy. I still think He’s very good hitter, and in my opinion the best hitter on the team.
Yes his numbers weren’t that good last year, but i think that was because he missed so much time with injuries. In Sept he hit over .320. His batting average, RBI, and OB% went up every month. so I think his low numbers were because he missed a lot of time, not because he is declining as a hitter.
and don’t forget he hit .325 in over 300 ABs in 2009! I agree, all he had to do is stay healthy, he’ll still put up good numbers
All he has to do is stay healthy! Yeah,you’re right. Remember Delgado? How about Santana? Sometimes older guys with serious issues can’t stay healthy.
Yes,
I can’t disagree with you there either….i won’t feel totally comfortable with Beltran until I see him playing for a period of time.
So because Delgado and Santana didn’t stay healthy, that means Beltran won’t?
Well anyway, Beltran is still a very good hitter, I’m not saying he won’t get injuried, but if he doesn’t, I think he will drive in over 100 runs – I think he’s the best hitter on the team.
One thing keeps coming to my mind when thinking about Carlos shifting to RF: 2005. Not the same situation exactly, but when the Mets signed Beltran they already had one of the premier CF’ers in MLB in Mike Cameron. Cameron being the team player and stand up guy he always has been, agreed to move to RF to accomodate Beltran. Everything seemed fine until one fateful day in August (I think) in San Diego when both players were chasing a sinking liner to Right Center and ended up head butting each other. Cameron I believe fractured a bone in his face and missed the remainder of the season while Beltran got lucky and was back in the lineup within a few days.
My point is that while it’s great on paper having 2 regular CF’ers it comes with a drawback. CF is a take charge position and, while the SD incident is isolated it can happen when 2 players, accustomed to taking charge, forget to communicate w/ each other in those situations. The key is for Beltran and Pagan to make sure they work on their communication this spring. Hopefully, since Beltran has been involved in such an accident that he’ll remember that Pagan is now the take charge guy in CF and he’ll make sure the communication is there. That’s the hope anyway.
Just shows the class of Beltran,love him or hate him he is quiet and classy. Personally hope he starts off great ,and gets the team 2 quality players for the Mets future. Im really looking forward to seeing who emerges for when he is traded or leaves at the end of the year. Im going with Martinez as the leader with Duda behind and Niewenhuis atleast 120 AAA games behind.
I think Beltran is probably better off in LF at Citifield, but Jason Bay has only played 1 game in RF.
LF would be the best thing for Carlos but no way Bay can play RF.
You know we may all be so happy Beltran has accepted playing RF but what do we do if Pagan had nothing more than his career year last season and reverts back to what he was?
I know we are all about what someone has done for us lately which is why people hate Beltran and love Pagan but what if what they do lately means we need to send Beltran back to center and find a RF to take over for a back to normal Pagan?
Not saying it will happen but it very well could!
The better question to ask is why have we only developed one RFer in 50 years?
Not really a question at all…RF is a position that can be filled by any decent power bat with a good arm!
You don’t bother drafting and developing RF and LFers. You develop CFs who when they hit but can’t field as well, move to Right or Left field!
We have a ton of OFers in the Minors, FMart is still too young to get it right now. But he was supposed to be a CF and now that Pagan Beltran are here he will go into RF instead.
Just like in Football, rarely does anyone draft a Guard high in the draft they all take Tackles and if he can’t cope there he is usually put at guard which is pretty much the same job only less talent needed.
Metsie, Considering the fact that we always draft CFers who turn into light hitting corner OFers, wouldn’t you say it might make sense to start looking for guys who’s bats project to play the best at those corner OF spots.
LF is the easiest position to play defensively, why not get a huge bat and back it up in the 7th 8th or 9th inning with a bench glove? 40 years since we have developed an All Star LFer, maybe a differnt approach might bring better results.
Same in RF. Sign and draft guys who’s bats project to play well there and let them fight it out.
Just because a CFer could play corner OF doesn’t mean he’ll be among the leagues best corner OFers.
Why would you develop a position that doesn’t need a specific skill when you can put someone else who didn’t work elsewhere and has those easy to find qualifications?
really the only requirement of a RF are a decent arm and a Good bat! And the good bat is a qualification ONLY because the fielding is so unimportant that you have to have something important to look at when filling the position.
Both hitting and Throwing are physical traits. You don’t really develop those in the Minors you merely HONE those skills.
But if you have a weak arm or a weak hitter no manner or time will change that!
If you get a guy who can throw AND hit you normally make him a RFer. It is a veryt easy position to transition players to and therefore those positions are best served as a place to save some other positional player who has a great bat and good arm but neither the range or the quick reactions needed to play at 3rd or 1B (which are also traditional power hitting positions.)
It does not pay to develop talent for roles that other failed picks might be salvaged in.
It makes much more sense to develop for the more important and critical positions on the field and if they can’t cut it you can at least retain some of their value as an OF. Why do you thnk Murphy was thrown out there first? I personally feel his best destiny is as a DH (useless to us) or he should be converted as a Catcher! Unless we plan on trading Wright sometime soon! Maybe if we had let him play OF in the Minors for longer than we did it might have worked out! Maybe he will after ST is over and someone else wins the 2B job!
Duda is a classic case of what you normally make a RFer.
His lack of showing not withstanding, He has power (bat) and while his fielding isn’t all that great has a decent arm.
The bottomline on drafting is you need to be able to use them at some point. Since it is common to throw people into right for having a good bat and not much more it makes little sense to develop for that instead of developing for a solid hitting 3B who needs a much better glove or a 2B who can field, or a CF who can easily play any OF position without missing a beat should his bat prove better than anyone else and there is another competent CFer to take his place!
When you were a kid what position did the worst guy on your team usually play?
It was either Catcher, 1B or RF!
Why? Because it didn’t matter how good he could field as they got the fewest chances, the 1B merely had to be able to play catch. Anyone could play there and as long as they hit the ball there were no issues!
“The better question to ask is why have we only developed one RFer in 50 years?”
So? When was the last time the Yankees developed their own RFer?
agee, you’re on this big kick about Mets scouting and minor league development, it seems all your replies to ALL questions go right back to that. I really don’t want to read about the history of scouting as an answer to all posts here.
Sometimes it’s okay just to debate the present issues at hand.