Mets: Who really is responsible for Carlos Beltran’s ouster?

Carlos Beltran didn’t last long as New York Mets manager. Who is most responsible for his ouster?

Carlos Beltran lasted 72 days as the New York Mets new manager, and yet unlike his seven-year playing career with the Amazin’s, he never got the chance to pilot the team that he said he would only manage.

In light of the fallout of the Houston Astros cheating scandal, otherwise known as Astrogate, four senior level officials on three major league teams lost their jobs. The Astros, the main perpetrators of the scandal fired General Manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J, Hinch, rather than have them face a season-long suspension. The Boston Red Sox mutually agreed with manager Alex Cora to have him step down. Cora was implicated as the ringleader in Astrogate, though controversy arose when the Red Sox were also accused of stealing signs during the 2018 season.

Then there’s the Mets. Yes, 72 days after announcing Beltran would manage the team, they decided to part ways with him. Reports have varied on how it came about, from Beltran’s alleged niece (since disproven) commenting on a now-deleted Twitter post saying that Beltran had decided it was in both his and the team’s best interest to step away, that COO Jeff Wilpon and General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen had both pressured Beltran to step down for fear of the “distraction”, or that Beltran had been fired, but the point is that the Mets, who had nothing to do with Astrogate in the first place, were punished by proxy.

To say that this isn’t fair to the Mets organization that they had to be caught up in this scandal is an understatement. In fact, the fact that the Mets had to be dragged into this is an absolute travesty in and of itself. However, blame needs to be assigned for this mess.

Before we begin, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way. Yes, obviously it would have been better if a. the Astros had never cheated in the first place and, depending on who you supported in the managerial search, b. the Mets paid Joe Girardi what he wanted, but obviously those matters came to pass and are no longer relevant in this piece.