It’s been very, very quiet in Mets Land since MLB’s announcement on Monday regarding the stealing of signs investigation. SU has been looking for signs at Citi Field – will it be white smoke or black smoke?
SU says the key question for the Mets is what did Beltran share in his interview for the managerial position? Did he lie about his role in the Astros’ scandal? Or was he forthcoming? At this point, we know that no player has been disciplined for their actions on the Astros, and we can assume the same for the Red Sox. We know that Beltran is the only player cited by name in MLB’s report. We know he has a long history of stealing signs “the old fashioned way” without the use of technology, and that he was very good at it. What if it turns out Verlander was a key guy in translating the signs of opponents for his hitters?
SU has read a number of articles this week about the future treatment of Hinch and Cora. The consensus seems to be that both will find their way back into some baseball related role once time goes by, and that could easily be a managerial role. Interesting. Mark McGwire has gotten jobs and certainly A-Rod is everywhere. The reality is that people are forgiving, and especially in sports where if you are contrite, people will forgive and forget.
What is interesting is that Beltran doesn’t come with a track record of managing that would make you say, “man, we can’t let this guy get away.” He has never managed anywhere at any level.
SU’s advice: keep Beltran, have him answer questions with the media, and show major, major contrition. He has time before the season starts to answer a ton of questions and get this out of the way. SU says the reality in baseball is that Barry Bonds could be named the manager of some team tomorrow or even Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire (or even A-Rod!). A player who used PEDs does not translate into allowing all of your players to do it. But you have to come clean and admit that you were wrong and what you did was wrong. This will dog Beltran for some time – no doubt.
Your thoughts? Should Beltran be in or out?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
MLB clearly drew the line to exclude players and that makes some sense. I’ve commented before that the whole scandal is not that big a deal to me. Players, fans, broadcasters, etc. have been intrigued by decoding and stealing signs forever. This is why signs are complex and always being changed. If they were simple or static, they would be stolen all the time. I don’t see any reason for the Mets to let Beltran go.
MLB and the owners have a lot of stake in preserving and growing the gambling business. This whole thing was about sending a strong message to the gambling community and legislatures that the sport is going to police itself effectively. I think they’ve sent that message and they don’t really think that dumping Beltran makes that message any stronger. (Dumping all the implicated players involved would make the message stronger but that’s a non-starter.)
Optics aside, it’s likely that this problem was more widespread than Hinch, Cora and these two teams. As with PEDs, there’s simply to much movement between teams to believe that any tactical advantage would stay in one or two cities. I haven’t heard any reports on this I wonder if advancements in sign stealing could have anything to do with the increase in offense, homeruns and other “developments” in baseball over recent seasons. I imagine homeruns become more likely if players know what type of pitch is coming. Maybe they’re also more likely to hit to a consistent part of the field if they aren’t fooled as often so this might explain the value of the defensive shifts. I’ve heard a lot about launch angles and training and data analysis as possible causes for all these changes but maybe sign stealing has something to do with it too.
Seth, good points here. I think MLB needs to expand the way that they show statistics for players. There should be a whole new category for performance when you knew the pitch that was coming. Batting average knowing the pitch; batting average with RISP knowing the pitch. This could open a whole new category for the analytics people.
He stepped down.