Each passing second adds to the unease surrounding the New York Mets and job status of newly-hired manager Carlos Beltran.
The organization has remained quiet this week as other key figures in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal of 2017 took the fall.
Astros owner Jim Crane fired manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred suspended them for a year.
Houston’s former bench coach, Alex Cora, was removed from his duties as Boston Red Sox manager despite MLB not releasing its findings of its separate investigation regarding the AL East side’s sign-stealing allegations of 2018.
Multiple reports have stated that MLB will seek no punishment for the players that took part, which is good news for the likes of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman.
Yet Beltran, who spent his final season as a player with the Astros in 2017, looks as though he’s on the verge of punishment by the team that just hired him as manager.
The Mets’ lack of communication suggests that Beltran’s status is on more than shaky ground. MLB insider Buster Olney said on ESPN Radio on Wednesday that the Mets’ support for him was “wavering.”
AMNewYork Metro called the Mets on multiple occasions to inquire whether Beltran had a vote of confidence from ownership or if he’s on his way out, to which they declined to comment.
Beltran’s involvement in the sign-stealing fiasco does put the Mets in an excruciatingly difficult place.
If they retain him, the man leading the team in the dugout will be labeled a cheater and Major League Baseball will scour every square inch of Citi Field for anything suspicious from now till kingdom come.
Should they part ways with the 42-year-old, then the Wilpon family is just having a knee-jerk reaction to bad press — which is something we’ve seen from the organization for years.
While there have been no updates on Beltran-watch, ESPN analyst and Mets advisor Jessica Mendoza became the first person within the organization to address the issue with the Golic and Wingo radio show.
Instead of condemning the actions of the Astros, she stated her biggest qualm was with former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers. He sparked the hysteria by disclosing the Astros’ scheme to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic in November, 11 days after the Mets hired Beltran.
“To go public with it and call them out and start all of this, it’s hard to swallow,” Mendoza said.
If her voice is any reflection of what the Mets are thinking, maybe Beltran stays after all.
But nothing can be assumed right now with this radio silence.
