Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork gives us an update on the Carlos Beltran saga saying that Carlos hopes to play in actual baseball games within a week. Real life baseball games. Wow. I will remain guarded until he has played in a few and has had no setbacks.
But assuming he does come back, does he come back to his natural center field postion or does he slide over to right?
Manuel also broached what could be a sticky situation regarding Beltran: Could he return as a right fielder if his mobility is reduced by an arthritic right knee? The Mets do have a quality center fielder in Angel Pagan, who was hitting .302 with four homers, 23 RBIs and nine steals through 179 at-bats.
This is an excellent question. It would seem to best help the team, and Beltran, if he did come back as the right fielder. As much as I absolutely love Jeff Francouer he’s killing us at the plate. It makes absolutely no sense to remove Pagan from the lineup given that he’s been playing great ball for us. Frenchy would also provide decent pop off the bench as well as a defensive replacement if needed late in games.
This would all hinge on Beltran agreeing to this and that’s where it gets tricky. Carlos takes a great amount of pride in his prowess in CF and moving him to RF might not be something he’s too keen on. His agent might not like it either given that he is looking for a new contract after next season. I say, propose it to Carlos as a solution for the rest of this season, to help him ease back into game-shape and minimize the wear and tear on his legs, and look to next year for a return to CF. It seems like it could be a mutually beneficial move.
Source: @AdamRubinESPN
