In 2004, Carlos Beltran was one of the best players in baseball. Between his time with the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros, he hit .267/.367/.548 with 36 doubles, nine triples, 38 homers, 104 RBI, and 42 stolen bases.

By WAR, he was the tenth best player in baseball. In the postseason, there was no one better than him as he hit eight homers in 12 postseason games.

This led to his signing a huge seven year $119 million contract. It was a contract befitting his burgeoning superstar status.

Only he wasn’t a superstar in 2005. Rather, he looked like a overpaid player who could make fans wonder if this deal would be as bad or worse as the Bobby Bonilla signing.

There was his rolling over on pitches hitting weak grounders to second. He had this inexplicable propensity to bunt. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, he and Mike Cameron dove for the same ball in San Diego leading to one of the more horrific collisions you’ll ever see.

Overall, Beltran only hit .266/.330/.414 with 34 doubles, two triples, 16 homers, and 78 RBI. The 97 OPS+ would be the third worst of his career. Things were so bad Beltrán was booed lightly during player introductions on Opening Day in 2006.

That 2006 season proved to be the best season of Beltran’s career.

The 8.2 WAR was the best of his career, and frankly, he was flat out robbed of the MVP award. His 41 homers tied Todd Hundley for what was then a Mets single season record (surpassed this year by Pete Alonso). He was an All-Star in addition to winning a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.

This was easily the best season any Mets outfielder ever had, and it is in the conversation for best ever season by a Mets position player.

After the complete and utter disaster that the 2005 season was, Beltran immediately turned things around, and he set himself on a path which will eventually lead to his Hall of Fame induction.

Now, Beltran is going to have to take the lessons he learned in 2005 and help Edwin Diaz have a similar turnaround.

In 2018, Diaz was arguably the best closer in the game with a Major League leading 57 saves with a 0.791 WHIP and a 15.2 K/9. He was so great that year the Mets admitted to including Jarred Kelenic in a deal just to keep him away from the Phillies.

Like with Beltran in 2005, things were horrid for Diaz.

In addition to blowing seven saves and losing the closer’s role, Diaz allowed a career high 15 homers. To put it into perspective, Diaz allowed 15 homers over the 2017 and 2018 seasons combined.

He’d have a career worst 5.59 ERA, 9.0 H/9, 36 ER, 73 ERA+, 4.51 FIP, 1.379 WHIP, and other categories as well. It was a nightmare of a season which led to Mets fans first being frustrated and later booing him.

This is not too dissimilar from Beltran’s experience, and that fact is not lost on Diaz. In fact, he’d say to Nathalie Alonso of MLB.com, “I want to have that conversation, to ask him how he handled New York in the time he was there [as a player] and now as a manager. He can give me some advice on how to handle the city better.”

With Beltran now Diaz’s manager, he can pull his former Puerto Rican World Baseball Classic teammate aside and impart the wisdom which helped him overcome the adversity he faced his first year in New York to become a Hall of Famer.

With respect to the World Baseball Classic, Diaz noted it was Beltran’s presence which helped that team. Diaz specifically said, “The motivation he gave us, I think, is one of the reasons why we got so far as a team [in the WBC]. From the first day, he was always there, always supporting us, giving us advice that we needed because we were a young group.”

The pre-existing relationship is why Diaz believes Beltran will be “a tremendous manager.” The advice Diaz believes Beltran can impart on him from their very similar experiences can help him “prepare myself physically and mentally, so that by the first day of Spring Training I’m ready to battle hard and win the closer job again.”

If Diaz can have a turnaround in 2020 like Beltran had in 2006, the Mets bullpen makes a significant step forward from suspect towards formidable. Fortunately, Diaz can now lean on the one guy who knows better than anyone what that experience is like, and what he needs to do.