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Carlos Beltran is doing his best to stay focused on the task at hand, keeping the Mets alive in the wild-card chase for as long as he can.
After rookie right-hander Pedro Beato had a subpar outing last week, Beltran took the former Xaverian High School star aside and told him, “You can throw 95. Just throw your fastball and stop messing around with these sliders and things.”
The slumping Beato responded with two straight strong outings.
“People had been telling me the same kinds of things, but once Carlos did it, it clicked,” Beato said. “I mean, he’s Carlos Beltran. It made me think.”
The amount of time Beato and the other Mets have with the right fielder could be coming to an end, because the resurgent and healthy Beltran is likely to be a hot commodity on the trade market.
But with the Mets steadfastly remaining in the playoff hunt, thanks in part to a National League that is lacking in quality teams, there’s no guarantee what general manager Sandy Alderson is going to do as the trade deadline approaches.
Alderson reiterated yesterday the next “three to four weeks” would help determine whether the Mets are going to be buyers or sellers, and he said he feels that a number of teams are in a similar position. He added there was no set number of games back in the race that would make up his mind, one way or the other.
Mets COO Jeff Wilpon wouldn’t rule out the possibility of adding payroll, so Alderson, and the rest of baseball, will be keeping a close eye on how the Mets perform before July 31.
They begin a series against the Athletics tonight at Citi Field and over their next 19 games before the All-Star break, play only six at home. And three of those are against the Yankees.
As vital as those 19 games figure to be for the Mets, they also could shape Beltran’s near future.
“I can control what I have control over,” Beltran said. “All I know is that now I feel good physically playing the game and I’m doing OK. For me, that’s the most important thing. The numbers and everything else will work out as long as I continue to stay on the field.”
Beltran said he and his agent, Scott Boras, have yet to begin talking about what teams he could wind up with.
“But there might come a point where I sit down with him and discuss that,” Beltran said. “I’m just here to play baseball. If the organization decides to let me finish the year here, that’s up to them. I’m not worried about it. I feel great and I’m having fun. I like this team and after the difficult years I’ve had, I’m just enjoying this.”
How much longer that continues is up to the Mets, who have kept things interesting so far and now face an Oakland team that has won five straight under new manager Bob Melvin.
The Mets will then go to Texas and Detroit before returning home to face the Yankees. They will close the stretch with a seven-game West Coast swing at the Dodgers and Giants.
“When [Beltran is] healthy, he’s fun to watch and I’m hoping we have him for the whole season,” Angel Pagan said. “We feel like we want him around so we can make the playoffs. It would be tough without him or Jose [Reyes]. But we all know it’s a business, so now we have to take care of our own business.”