Carlos Beltran was officially signed by the Mets on January 11, 2005, which was exactly 15 years ago today. The team gave him a seven-year, $119 million contract with the hope that he could be a big thumper in the middle of the order with budding stars Jose Reyes and David Wright alongside him.
There were many ups-and-downs over the course of his time with the Mets, but the contract as a whole was worth it as the center fielder hit .280/.369/.500 with 149 homers, 559 RBI, and a 129 OPS+. He also made five All-Star teams while also winning three Gold Glove Awards and two Silver Slugger Awards.
His most memorable moment, unfortunately, is Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS when he struck out looking on a nasty curveball from Adam Wainwright to record the final out of the playoffs for the Mets that season.
The 2010 season would prove to be a very eventful time in his career as a dispute with the organization over Beltran getting knee surgery without the team agreeing to it emerged. That decision by Beltran led to him only playing 64 games that season and moving to right field in 2011.
An offensive resurgence in 2011 for Beltran allowed the Mets, who were not really true contenders that season, to trade the outfielder to the San Francisco Giants before the MLB Trade Deadline in exchange for Zack Wheeler.
Oddly enough, the 2019 offseason saw Beltran rejoin the organization as the team’s manager for the 2020 season while Wheeler left to join the Philadelphia Phillies.
Beltran, 42, will now embark on finishing his legacy with the New York Mets, for better or for worse, in the coming months and maybe even years. He’ll be tasked with leading a team that finished 86-76 and in third place in the National League East in 2019.
A seven-year contract signed in 2005 might only represent a fraction of Beltran’s significance in Mets’ history as he looks to add to his legacy and help “rewrite our story” as the team’s skipper going forward.
