Mets overlook sign-stealing scandal and add Carlos Beltran to front office

Carlos Beltran is leaving the YES Network and making his return to the New York Mets as a member of their front office.

Back in the winter of 2019, the New York Mets hired Carlos Beltran as their manager. His tenure lasted over two months before he stepped down due to his involvement in the Houston Astros’ sign stealing scandal in the 2017 season. He joined the Yankees’ YES Network as an analyst last season.

Well now, he is back with the Mets.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Beltran is leaving the YES Network to join the Mets’ front office. MLB Network insider Mark Feinsand reports that Beltran’s official title will be special assistant to general manager Billy Eppler.

Carlos Beltran leaves Yankees’ YES Network to join Mets front office

This is a different regime that is bringing back Beltran than when he was hired back in 2019. Fred Wilpon owned the team then and Brodie Van Wagenen was the general manager. Now, it’s Steve Cohen owning the team and Eppler serving as general manager.

Beltran was set to become the Mets’ manager after the organization fired Mickey Callaway after two years on the job. But then, Beltran was implicated in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, in which the team used cameras in center field of Minute Maid Park that relayed to a television in the club’s tunnel, and pitching signals were transmitted to the batter by way of banging on a trash can in the clubhouse. The huge report revealed that Beltran had helped set up the sign-stealing plan. On Jan. 16, 2020, Beltran and the Mets mutually agreed to part ways.

That same offseason, Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for the 2020 season and were subsequently fired by team owner Jim Crane. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was a bench coach for the Astros in the 2017 season, was also suspended for the 2020 season, with both parties agreeing to part ways. Cora returned to the team in 2021 as their manager.

Beltran called some games for the YES Network in the 2022 season. According to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, the network had planned to move him over from the commentary booth to in-studio as an analyst.

This offseason, Beltran was on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, where he received just 46.5-percent of the votes (181-of-297), short of the 75.0-percent needed to receive induction.

Over three years since his departure from the Mets as manager, he returns to Queens, NY in a front office role.