The Mets’ road to hiring Buck Showalter to be their new manager is one that started back in 2020, when Carlos Beltrán, their manager at the time and six-and-a-half year veteran of the Mets, was named in the Astros sign stealing scandal from the 2017 season. Beltrán–then a player–was heavily named as a conspirator of the idea to bang trash cans for certain pitches pulled from video footage shot from center field. He was the only player named in the report. He never managed a game with the Mets.
That led to Luis Rojas taking over once Beltrán was fired, managing the team during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, then given another shot to prove his managerial prowess with a full season in 2021.
That didn’t work out, and with a more veteran team assembled for the 2022 season (the four major free agents the team signed will all play the 2022 season at age 33 or above), the Mets will look to Showalter to run the show.
But Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that “it wouldn’t be a huge surprise” if Beltran was somehow brought back into the fold with the Mets.
Puma said that owner Steve Cohen was “enamored” with the Beltrán hire when it first took place. Cohen was a minority owner in 2019 and was in the process of taking over as majority owner. His initial deal with the Wilpons fell through and eventually took over as majority owner in November 2020.
AJ Hinch and Alex Cora, two other dugout leaders involved with the Astros cheating scandal in 2017, lost their jobs in 2020 then were hired for jobs (Hinch with the Tigers and Cora with the Red Sox again, both as managers) around a year after the report of sign stealing was released by MLB. But they both had previous success that likely aided in them getting jobs so quickly after the cheating scandal surfaced.
Beltrán is not in the same camp. While he may manage a team one day (if that is still a goal), he’ll likely have to start off lower on the totem pole before getting a manager job. Puma seems to indicate that could happen in the Mets organization.
“The dynamic of pairing a younger presence such as Beltran (as bench coach) with a veteran manager” like Showalter “could work,” Puma said. “It would give Beltran an opportunity to soak in knowledge from a well-respected tactician while bringing his own ideas to the mix.” Beltrán or not, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Mets hire a younger person on the coaching staff that they see as someone who could eventually take over for the 65-year-old Showalter.
Puma also said that if there’s not a spot in the dugout for Beltrán, he has experience as member of the Yankees front office in 2018 as a special assistant. He could be brought back into the organization that way if the Mets and Cohen are interested in that sort of a reunion.
