DALLAS (105.3 The Fan/AP) - After just three months, Carlos Beltrán's run as the manager of the New York Mets is over.
According to multiple reports, Beltran has stepped down from his role as manager after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred outed for his role in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scheme.
Houston fired AJ Hinch one hour after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred released his findings Monday. Boston's management took 29 1/2 hours to announce Alex Cora's departure on Tuesday.
Up until Thursday morning, Beltrán's status had remained in limbo, with the Mets refusing to say whether their new manager stays or goes. In Manfred's nine-page statement, Beltrán was the only player identified as a participant in the cheating scheme.
“They have to fire Carlos Beltrán,” a former New York Yankees teammate, Mark Teixeira, said Wednesday on ESPN, where he works as an analyst. "There's no way that Carlos Beltrán, especially in the pressure cooker of New York, there's no way he can be the manager of the Mets. ... You cannot have that guy lead your team. The New York papers, the Daily News and the Post and all of the tabloids will eat up Carlos Beltrán every single day until he's fired."
Cora was Houston's bench coach in 2017 and the instigator of the Astros' use of a camera in center field and monitor near the dugout to steal catchers' signals.
“Approximately two months into the 2017 season, a group of players, including Carlos Beltrán, discussed that the team could improve on decoding opposing teams' signs and communicating the signs to the batter,” Manfred wrote.
Hinch and Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow received one-season suspensions before owner Jim Crane fired them. Manfred decided not to discipline players — 2017 was Beltrán's final season.
New York has struggled since reaching the 2015 World Series, where the Mets lost to Kansas City. Terry Collins was fired in 2017 following his seventh season and Mickey Callaway was dismissed in October after his second. Steve Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire, is in the process of buying a controlling share of the team from the families of Fred and Jeff Wilpon, and of Saul Katz. After evaluating operations this season, Cohen may decide on large-scale changes.
With the start of spring training less than a month away, there is not much time to decide on a successor. Options could include new bench coach Hensley Meulens and ESPN analyst Eduardo Pérez, who interviewed for the manager job with GM Brodie Van Wagenen last fall.
Cora, unsolicited, brought up Beltrán last June after the Yankees swept a two-game series from the Red Sox in London. Beltrán spent last season as an adviser to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and was on hand.
Now they will be forever linked.
"I was joking with somebody that their biggest free-agent acquisition is Carlos Beltran," Cora said, winking. "I know how he works. He's helped them a lot."