Baker, Crane ‘feel sorry’ for Beltran
Unable to get past Houston’s stench, recently-deposed Mets manager Carlos Beltran was once again a topic of discussion during the Astros’ apology tour.
Both team owner Jim Crane and new manager Dusty Baker shared their pity about the retired former star’s disgraced reputation during a Thursday press conference addressing the team’s illegal sign-stealing scandal.
“It was a little disheartening, you know, to hear some of the things that I was hearing about Carlos,” Baker said. The veteran manager was hired last month to replace the suspended and subsequently fired manger of the 2017 team, A.J. Hinch. GM Jeff Lunhow was also suspended, fired and replaced by the team.
“I’ve known [Beltran] from the other side of the field, as you know, as a fine man [and] a Christian man,” Baker said. “At the same time, I don’t know what was written is true or not, but you know we’re all capable of wrongdoing at some point in time.
“I just felt badly for Carlos, and for the Astros.”
Crane echoed his new manager’s sentiments about his former player.
“You know, Carlos was a great player and he had a great career and, you know, hopefully, he’ll get past this. I feel sorry for him.”
Like Baker, Crane claimed to be unsure about the evidence in MLB’s probe into their team, including Beltran’s involvement.
“You know, the report’s the report,” said Crane. “Again I didn’t do the investigation but he was named in the investigation. So yeah, you have to feel that that’s accurate.”
“Carlos had a great career,” Crane added. “And hopefully, he’ll learn from this.”
Beltran, who spent seven of his 20 big-league seasons with the Mets, was hired as the team’s new skipper in November. Seventy-seven days later he was dumped as his involvement in the cheating scandal became too big a distraction to ignore.