- Admin
- #1
With his team trailing, Beltran was slated to arrive at home plate as the third batter in the bottom of the ninth inning. And when Jose Reyes struck out to begin the frame, there was still a slight chance that Beltran could have struck out looking to end what would end up being a 6-2 loss against, yes, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Such an event, of course, would serve as a weird flashback to what will, fairly or not, serve as Beltran's defining moment during the seven years he spent in a Mets uniform — keeping his bat on his shoulder as a strike from Adam Wainwright sent St. Louis to the 2006 World Series and the Mets franchise into a tailspin it has yet to recover from.
Luckily, though, Justin Turner singled in the next at-bat, paving the way for a nice ovation for Beltran as he stepped to the Citi Field plate for what could be his last time in a Mets uniform. The team heads out on a long road trip this weekend and won't be back until Aug. 1, the day after the big league trading deadline.
And though Beltran popped up to left field, his returning to the dugout to a smattering of cheers from the smattering of Mets fans left in the sweltering stands certainly beat the alternative:
"I heard the fans cheering," Beltran said. "It was great. Let's hope I can come back."
If you go over to MetsBlog and watch the video of Beltran's press conference, you'll see that he might have been a little — OK, a lot — more convincing when he delivered that awkward "let's hope I can come back" line. As one of the biggest trade targets on the market, Beltran likely agrees with everyone else that he isn't long for Queens. Over the next 10 days, it'll just be a matter of which team can put together a package that will help GM Sandy Alderson and his pocket full of organizational wizards rebuild the franchise.
But it's that awkwardness that really highlights Beltran's time with the team after signing a $119 million deal after his unreal 2004 playoff run with the Houston Astros. It shouldn't really be that way, because Beltran largely held up his end of a sizable deal that usually has the potential to turn out much worse. Over his seven seasons as a Met, Beltran has hit a combined .281/.368/.502 with 149 homers and 554 RBI — numbers that represent an increase over the seven seasons he spent with the Kansas City Royals. Beltran represented the Mets in the All-Star Game five different years and teamed with Jose Reyes and David Wright to form a core that looked like it had the potential for sustained success.
That didn't happen, of course. So many things got in the way — from awful injuries to awful team finances — that Beltran standing with that bat on his shoulder on a disappointing October night started to become an iconic scene. That's not fair, of course, to a player who produced and led by example like he did, but it has now led to the group of knowledgeable Mets fans throwing around labels like "underappreciated" and "most underrated Met ever."
Look, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. Beltran's seven-year deal with the Mets was a little of both. Pennants and World Series titles are the ultimate measuring stick in New York and Beltran didn't come away with either, even if that was more of a reflection on the team than Beltran himself.
Regardless, it's now time for Beltran and the Mets move on. A chapter closed at Citi Field on Thursday and thank god it ended better than it could have.