Mets’ Carlos Beltrán won’t discuss role in Astros’ cheating scandal

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Carlos Beltran refused to discuss his role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, preferring to concentrate on his new role with the New York Mets.

“Today’s not about the Astros,” Beltran said. “Today is about the Mets.”

Beltran was hired by the Mets on Nov. 1, 2019, to replace Mickey Callaway as manager. But the team announced Beltran’s departure the following Jan. 16 without him managing a game.

Beltran’s departure was announced three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in Major League Baseball’s report that concluded that Houston broke rules by using electronics to steal signs en route to the 2017 World Series title.

“I felt like that was a moment that needed to happen and I moved on,” Beltran said.

He joined the Mets last week as a special assistant to general manager Billy Eppler. Beltran said he didn’t expect to return.

“No chance,” Beltran said. “No clue. That’s how the world goes around. … When this opportunity came, it was a no-brainer to say yes.”

Beltran received 46.5% of votes in his first Hall of Fame ballot appearance this year, well short of the needed 75%. His role in the scandal likely impacted voters.

“I felt OK with it,” Beltran said. “I know that I went through a moment in my career that was tough. I also know I had some fans and now I don’t have those fans anymore. But at the end of the day, I have to live my life. I have to move on.”

Beltran said several clubs offered him opportunities to be an on-field coach this season. He sees his new role as a bridge between players and the front office, helping players understand the pressure of playing in New York.

“They test you, they push you, but most importantly they push you to be better,” Beltran said.

Beltran wants to be the mentor he didn’t have when he coming through Kansas City’s system.

“Because you didn’t have it, doesn’t mean you cannot give it,” Beltran said. “In my case I feel when you are in the minor league system you need love. You need people to care about you. That’s why I’m motivated. I’m motivated because I didn’t have that person, and I hope that I can be that person for those kids.”

Now 45, the nine-time All-Star played with the Mets from 2005-11 and is sixth on the team’s career list for homers (149) and RBIs (559). Beltran was the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year with Kansas City. He also played for San Francisco, St. Louis and the Yankees, finishing with a .279 average, 435 homers and 312 bases.

Beltran spent last season as a game analyst for the Yankees’ YES Network.

“That opportunity created this opportunity, because when you are in the game and you stay relevant, people get to see your face and get to see you around,” he said. “It’s hard for me to disappear for five years and say, `OK, I want to get back in the game.’ No chance. I would be a dinosaur. You have to speak the same language baseball is speaking today.”

Beltran wouldn’t rule out becoming a manager.

“You can never say no when you love the game, and you love being around guys and being able to impact players and make careers better,” he said. “At this point I’m OK where I am, but later on I don’t know.”

Royals’ John Sherman optimistic about new ballpark, current team

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The first thing that Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman thinks about when he wakes up each morning is how the club, stuck in what seems like an interminable rebuild, will play on that particular day.

Not where they will play four or five years down the road.

Yet given the modest expectations for a team that lost nearly 100 games a year ago, it makes sense many Royals fans are just as interested – quite possibly more so – in the plans for a downtown ballpark than whether infielder Bobby Witt Jr. can double down on his brilliant rookie season or pitcher Brady Singer can truly become a staff ace.

That’s why Sherman’s second thought probably moves to the downtown ballpark, too.

“This is a huge decision, and I look at it as maybe the most important decision we’ll make as long as we have the privilege of stewarding this team,” Sherman said before the Royals held a final workout Wednesday ahead of opening day. “I’m probably as anxious as you to get moving on that, but it’s a complicated process.”

The Royals have called Kauffman Stadium home since the sister to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, opened 50 years ago next month.

And while most stadiums are replaced because they have become outdated, the unique, space-aged look of Kauffman Stadium – built during an era in which teams trended toward impersonal, multisport concrete donuts for their homes – remains beloved by Royals fans and visitors alike.

The problem is that despite numerous renovations over the years, the very concrete holding the ballpark together has begun to crumble in places. The cost simply to repair and maintain the ballpark has become prohibitive.

So with the decision essentially made for them to build an entirely new stadium, the Royals revealed plans to build an entire development in the same mold of The Battery Atlanta, where the Braves built Truist Park, and the Ballpark Village in St. Louis, where the new Busch Stadium is merely the centerpiece of a whole entertainment district.

No site has been secured, but several of the most promising are in downtown Kansas City, where the Power & Light District along with T-Mobile Center have spearheaded a successful era of urban renewal.

Sherman has said that private funds would cover the majority of the stadium cost and the entire village, each carrying a price tag of about $1 billion.

But if any public funding will be used, as it was to build and maintain Kauffman Stadium, then it would need to be voted upon, and the earliest that it could show up on a ballot would be August.

“You look at Atlanta, they took some raw ground – they started with 85 acres – and that has been a complete home run,” said Sherman, who purchased the Royals in August 2019, shortly before the pandemic wreaked havoc on team finances.

“This is one of the reasons we want to do this: That’s helped the Braves become more competitive,” Sherman said of the vast potential for increased revenue for one of the smallest-market teams in baseball. “They have locked up and extended the core of their future, and the Braves are in a great position from a baseball standpoint.”

So perhaps the first two thoughts Sherman has each day – about performance and the future – are one and the same.

When it comes to the team itself, the Royals were largely quiet throughout the winter, though that was by design.

Rather than spending heavily on free agents that might help them win a few more games, they decided to stay the course with a promising young roster in the hopes that the development of those players would yield better results.

In fact, Sherman said, the club has been discussing extensions for some of the Royals’ foundational pieces – presumably Witt, who was fourth in voting for AL rookie of the year, and Singer, who was 10-5 with a 3.23 ERA last season.

“We’re having conversations about that as we speak,” Sherman said. “We have a number of young players that we’re trying to evaluate and we’re talking to their representatives about what might work.”

Just because the Royals’ roster largely looks the same, that doesn’t mean nothing has changed. The Royals fired longtime general manager Dayton Moore in September and moved J.J. Picollo to the role, then fired manager Mike Matheny in October and replaced him with longtime Indians and Rays coach Matt Quatraro.

Sherman said the new voices created a palpable energy in spring training that he hopes carries into the regular season.

“When we acquired the team, we had three primary objectives,” Sherman said. “One was to win more games; we’re working on that. The second was to secure the future; that’s what (the stadium) is. And the third was to do good in the community.

“But the first priority,” he said, “is really the on-field product. That’s what really lifts everything else up.”