Carlos Beltrán’s involvement in the Astros stealing scandal en route to the 2017 World Series title tarnished his reputation and cost him the Mets managerial job, but it ultimately didn’t keep him out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Beltrán was introduced in his fourth year on the ballot with 84.2 percent of the vote, and during a Zoom call Tuesday, the former Met and Yankee acknowledged that his past transgressions made his path to Cooperstown more difficult.
“There is no doubt that the Astros situation has been a topic of conversation,” Beltrán said, adding that it has not been “positive” for him.
“At the end of the day, when I look at my career, when I look at things in the game of baseball, there’s no doubt that you’re going to have ups and downs,” Beltrán said. ‘You’re going to make good decisions [and] You’re going to make decisions like that, right? And you’re also going to make bad decisions.
That includes his involvement in Houston’s sign-stealing scheme in 2017 — which included hitting trash cans to warn hitters off pitches — including in the playoffs, when they defeated the Yankees in the ALCS en route to a championship in Beltrán’s final season of his playing career.
“When I retired from baseball, I thought everything I had built … meaning relationships and good people that I could be around, I thought that was going to be lost,” said Beltrán, who later worked for the Yankees and is currently a special advisor to the Mets. “Now that I’m back in the game, I still get love from the people. I still get love from the players. The teammates in the clubhouse know what kind of person I am. At the same time, I understand that that’s also a story I have to deal with.”
Now he can tell that story as a Hall of Famer, as Beltrán will be enshrined in July, alongside Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent, another former Met.
Beltrán’s electoral turnout was stable in his four years, starting at 46.5 percent in his first year of eligibility, to 70.3 percent last year.
He has struggled with his reputation for years, telling The Post in 2022 that he knew many fans wouldn’t be as forgiving as some of his former teammates and even opponents.
“That is a battle I will not win,” Beltrán said at the time about his reputation among many fans. “No matter how much I try to apologize for what I did in the whole situation, I won’t win. I know that when I’m around [the ballpark] and around the players they acknowledge me and shake my hand. I have lost part of the perception I had of the fans.”
He remains respected throughout the match and said Tuesday he hasn’t given up on his goal of possibly succeeding.
Beltrán said being able to work with the Mets and owner Steve Cohen has allowed him to remain “relevant” in the game and perhaps improve his chances of getting back into the dugout after his first effort was derailed by reports of the scandal in 2019.
“Managing is something I would like to try someday if God would give me the opportunity,” Beltrán said.
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