Omar Minaya became the Mets general manager following a disappointing 2004 season. He quickly made his mark by signing two stars in Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran.
Beltran was coming off a good regular season between the Royals and Astros, and a monster postseason with Houston following a midseason trade.
The switch-hitter would play parts of seven seasons with the Mets, becoming one of the best position players in team history.
Allard Baird began his career as a hitting coach in the Royals minor league system back in 1988 before working his way into the front office. He was the Royals’ national scouting crosschecker when they drafted out of high school in 1995.
By the time Beltran had made it to the big leagues in 1998, Baird was an assistant to the GM. Baird was then the GM in 2005 when Beltran was going to be a free agent after the season, and Allard decided to trade the talented center fielder to the Astros.
Fast forward to early October when Beltran sat down to have lunch with Baird and Minaya according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. GM Brodie Van Wagenen said it was nothing more than a “social reconnection” but it certainly led to bigger things as the Mets announced Beltran as their 22nd on Monday.
At the lunch it was clear that Beltran wanted to be a manager, and the Mets had an opening after firing Mickey Callaway on October 3.
The one thing that keeps getting mentioned is how Beltran is going to approach the implementation of analytics – or simply information as Carlos likes to put it – “The way he (Beltrán) just went on and on about motivating players, about bridging the analytics department to the players, being able to break it down and simplify it and put the analytics people in a better position in the way they’re viewed by players and coaches.”
One of the first things that Van Wagenen did during the press conference to introduce Beltrán was thanking both Baird and Minaya for their inclusion in the managerial hiring process.
A process that included three rounds of interviews and a list of candidates including Joe Girardi, Luis Rojas, Mike Bell, Derek Shelton, Skip Schumaker, Eduardo Perez, Pat Murphy, Tony DeFrancesco, and Tim Bogar.
Out of that large interviewee group, the Mets selected their former star with Van Wagenen listing five reasons why; his presence, trustworthiness, willingness to evolve, committed to beating opponent, and instant credibility with players.
