Carlos Beltran lands Mets front office job three years after getting fired by the team for his link to the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal

Carlos Beltran is returning to the New York Mets again. Or should we say re-returned?

Carlos Beltran left New York after seven seasons with the Mets in 2011. Nine years later, he was chosen to succeed Mickey Callaway. However, this comeback in the manager's hotseat was not to be for Beltran, due to his involvement in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal in 2017.

In his column for the New York Post, Jon Heyman wrote:

"Just days before Beltran and the Mets parted ways, MLB revealed that he had played a pivotal role in orchestrating the cheating system’s creation and implementation, which had players illegally pick up catchers’ signs via a center-field camera. Teammates then relayed the signs to the batter by banging on garbage cans.

"Although no players were punished, Beltran was the only player named in the report. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were both fired as a result of the scandal, and the Red Sox fired Alex Cora, who served as the Astros’ bench coach at the time, though he has since been rehired by Boston."

Alex Cora recently came under the scanner once again for his unfiltered thoughts on the scandal.

Carlos Beltran was also mentioned as one of those who helped come up with the sign-stealing scheme. He has previously expressed his disappointment at being singled out in the report as well as the Houston Astros management turning a blind eye during the infamous season. He said:

“I didn’t stop it the same way no one stopped it. This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you? So, if the organization would’ve said something to us, we would’ve stopped it for sure.”

Carlos Beltran and Mets' 2006 heartbreak

Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets looks on from the dugout against the Washington Nationals during the Mets' Home Opener at Citi Field on April 8, 2011, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

Beltran moved to the New York Mets in a seven-year, $119 million deal and was one of the finest players to have donned a Mets uniform. It was at Citi Field where he secured five of his nine career MLB All-Star selections. His batting average for the franchise was .280, and he managed a .369 OBP as well as .500 slugging percentage during his Mets tenure.

However, his time at the Mets also had its share of lows, notably in 2006. An excerpt from a Bleacher Report story read:

"There are few things more unsatisfying in baseball than ending a game on a called third strike, and Carlos Beltran wrote the most unsatisfying ending to any Mets season when he froze while watching St. Louis Cardinals Adam Wainwright’s hellacious curveball drop in for strike three, ending the 2006 NLCS. It marked the third-straight Mets’ loss in the NLCS, as well as the end of the mid-aught Mets as cchampionship-caliber pretenders."

However, with ambitious ownership and new management, Mets fans surely have reasons to be more optimistic.