The No. 15 Mets uniform still hung in the corner at his locker.
On the chair resided a bottle of wine and a card. But Carlos
Beltran was gone.
By Steve Popper – The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
The No. 15 Mets uniform still hung in the corner at his locker. On the chair resided a bottle of wine and a card. But Carlos Beltran was gone.
A baseball official confirmed the long-running speculation that the Mets have pulled the trigger on a deal which will send Beltran to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for highly regarded minor leaguer pitcher Zack Wheeler.
The deal, which still needs to clear the 24-hour waiting period because of Beltran’s status as a 10 & 5 player (10 years in the league, five with the same team), will almost certainly go through, with the Giants one of Beltran’s top choices all along as a destination. The defending World Series champs courted Beltran, bringing the Mets’ outfielder along with Jose Reyes on their chartered jet from San Francisco to Phoenix for the All-Star Game earlier this month and players openly lobbied for the Giants to add him to their roster.
Beltran, who will be a free agent at season’s end, is still owed nearly $7 million this season, which the Mets will pick up approximately $4 million according to a person familiar with the deal.
In the clubhouse Beltran never spoke, arriving briefly after the locker room closed and departing quickly, en route to Philadelphia where he will join the Giants today. He invited the entire team, players and coaches, to Jeff Ruby’s, a local steakhouse Tuesday night, where one player speculated the bill had to top $10,000, a fitting farewell for the $119 million deal the Mets gave him seven years ago.
But his teammates, despite the constant drumbeat of a deal, seemed stunned. R.A. Dickey asked for a moment to process the news before speaking.
“For me, personally, it’s a sad day because I love Carlos,” Dickey said. “I think he’s a great teammate. He’s a fantastic guy and he’s a valuable piece to a puzzle that’s trying to win obviously or we wouldn’t have been trading him.
“We’re not mailing it in by any stretch of the imagination. But obviously this will make it harder than it was before. There’s no doubt about that and it’s the truth.”
The deal was designed for the long-term with Beltran a free agent at season’s end. Wheeler is a 21-year-old righthanded starting pitcher, who was plucked as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2009 draft by the Giants. He was 7-5 with a 3.99 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 88 innings.
“We’re going to have to collectively come together and make up for what he’s done this year,” David Wright said. “The big picture is obviously there’s a plan in place and the front office is sticking to that plan. You can’t doubt them. You have to understand there’s always two sides to everything. By no means is this signaling we’re that we’re just going to play out the season. Obviously this is going to help us, maybe not in the immediate future, but down the road.”
The Mets struck what they hope is gold thanks to a resurgent season by Beltran. After two years of knee troubles that limited his games and his performance, Beltran emerged as an All-Star again – coincidentally selected by Giants manager Bruce Bochy – with a .289 average, 15 homers and 66 RBI.
According to a baseball official Mets general manager Sandy Alderson was determined to turn Beltran into an elite prospect – seeking out Wheeler from the Giants, along with Brandon Belt and Gary Brown. The race had narrowed to just a handful of teams, but the Phillies refused to include Domonic Brown and the Braves held onto their top pitching prospects.
The Mets got their man thanks to Beltran’s performance this year.
“I think he’s been a huge influence,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “It’s a situation where if you’re a young player, obviously you walk into a major league clubhouse and you’re surrounded by the established guys, the guys that have been here.
“But you get around a guy who’s been playing for 13 or 14 years, who’s hugely established, and you watch him work. Sometimes he doesn’t have to say anything. They lead by example. Here’s a guy that does nothing but show up every day, goes out, plays his game, plays very well, knows how to take care of himself, knows when to back off.
“If you had any ideas of playing that long you’d better watch him, see what those guys do,” Collins added. “Because there’s nobody who’s a better example of how to take care of yourself. A guy who’s been playing we don’t know how hurt all year long, at this particular point leads us in games played, innings played, because he knows how to prepare himself.”
Collins owed much of his success this season to Beltran, something he never imagined when he took over as manager. Beltran played just three spring games, but made the first-year manager’s task easier by declaring he would switch from center to rightfield, then played almost every day. Collins was looking forward to a chance to say goodbye.
Asked what he’d say, Collins said: “I guess good luck. Sorry to see you go. Thanks for all you did. Thanks for all you are. You brought a lot to this team. There’s going to be some people that are going to miss Carlos Beltran on this team.”
