Why Was Carlos Beltran Mets Only Casualty?
The firing of Carlos Beltran was an unusual one. This wasn’t performance based. Moreover, this wasn’t because of anything he did as a member of the New York Mets.
No, Beltran was fired because of his taking part in the Houston Astros sign stealing two years ago. With the firing, the Mets said cheating is wrong, and they will not be a party to it.
Actually, no, they didn’t.
We know they didn’t because the Mets traded for Jake Marisnick after the scandal broke and while the investigation was pending.
After the report was released, the Mets didn’t release Marisnick even after learning he was a part of an Astros team who cheated. Remember, the Mets thought Beltran cheating merited not just a firing, but also not paying him the money owed on his contract.
Well, if it wasn’t the cheating. Maybe it was the lying. After all, Beltran texted to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, “I’m not aware of that camera. We were studying the opposite team every day.”
The problem is J.D. Davis similarly lied. When he was questioned about it, Davis said, “I have no idea, I was kind of the freshman among the seniors. I have no idea what was going on or what’s really happening.”
8/23/17
Joe Blanton vs JD Davis
Bang for Changeup #Astros #AstrosCheat #StealingSigns pic.twitter.com/IYl5E2cC9T— Belly (@theNYCeltic) November 14, 2019
Davis cheated and lied to the press about it. However, unlike Beltran, Davis is still a member of the Mets.
While not batters, Rick Porcello and Dellin Betances played for teams who had been found to illegally use the replay review room. The Mets signed both players after the scandal broke.
Maybe the Mets want to say there’s a higher standard of conduct for a member of the coaching staff. Whereas players may get wrapped up in cheating, you can’t have that type of conduct from a leader.
The problem there is Ricky Bones is the bullpen coach despite having previously been named in the Mitchell Report, so that’s not the case.
So what exactly is the message here?
Cheating is acceptable, but only if you’re not that good at it? We don’t condone high level cheating unless it’s a Ponzi Scheme or insider trading?
As the Mets tell it, they were initially fine with the allegations. Brodie Van Wagenen said, “Anything that happened, happened for another organization with Houston, Major League Baseball . . . But at this point, I don’t see any reason why this is a Mets situation.”
Jeff Wilpon added at the conference call, “I think the change came when the report did come out how prominent he was in it.”
So, the message here with Davis, Marisnick, and Bones, and to a certain extent, Porcello and Betances remain members of the New York Mets, the organization is saying they have ZERO ISSUES WITH CHEATING.
In fact, with the Mets obtaining Marisnick, Porcello, and Betances after news of the scandal broke, they’re saying they actually want players who might’ve cheated or at least have knowledge of it.
The Mets want all of those players in Flushing just as long as they don’t get caught or are specifically implicated. Then, when the attention is directed the Mets way, they’ll pretend to have a problem.
The Mets actually have a little depth in the pen this year. If they don’t insist on pitching guys just because they’re paying them, they might do reasonably well. Lugo, Betances, Familia, Diaz… except for Betances they all seem healthy, and the latter two had enough stuff that they should be able to put up at least a 3.75-4.00 ERA pitching a couple of times a week even if their best days are past.
Then they’ve got the second and third tier guys, Justin Wilson, Wacha, Drew Smith, Zamora, Sewald, Gsellman, Brad Brach, then guys like Bashlor, Rhame, Nogosek who have some chance of being at least replacement level.
A good pitching coach who largely dictates who pitches or is available on a given day could add several wins to this club. I can’t believe the bullpen’s performance over the last two season is an accurate reflection of the talent on hand.
My personal hope is the bullpen’s failures last year were ball related, and as such, they’ll rebound in 2020.
I think we might see some of that, but it felt distinctly odd to me that professional ballplayers with an entire season to adjust, presumably with all the technology, coaching, video, and etc. at their fingertips, couldn’t adjust at least to the point of being adequate.
I wonder, too, if rather than there being a blanket problem, it wasn’t that Diaz was injured after the May 28th game, that Syndergaard never figured out the new ball the way deGrom did, that Familia was just a mistake signing, a player who peaked at age 25 and is simply over the hill–not completely ineffective as his 62 k in 60ip showed, just nowhere near what he was and perhaps not adjusting well to a new, lower level of ability. I think given the wholesale failures of nearly every reliever (and I don’t mean to indulge myself here), it may also have been that Callaway took an approach that was just somehow wrongheaded–but that’s uninformed speculation on my part, based on the pen’s widespread inability to perform, which in turn is suggestive of a misguided overall approach.
Still, while I would have preferred a more reliable bullpen arm like Wills Smith or Harris, Betances literally can’t hurt unless he is given innings commensurate with his salary rather than his performance in 2020–and he might be terrific. Interesting, that as long as Lugo continues at his 2018-19 levels, only one of Betances, Diaz, and Familia need to be near their peaks for the pen to be quite good.
Btw, do we know why experienced pitchers suddenly lose all semblance of control? Familia walked a man an inning in April (13bb in 14.1 ip), and improved all the way to terrible (29bb in 45.2 ip) for the rest of the season.
If there’s good news, it’s that he closed out the year with 1bb in 11ip and 11 games, so if it was a lingering injury it might have finally healed–or maybe the improvement was just luck and hitters swinging more in the last month? Beats me.