Carlos Beltrán finds 'closure' with Mets fans as his No. 15 is retired

NEW YORK — Carlos Beltrán still recalls the conversations with his wife.

After signing what was then the biggest contract in Mets history — a seven-year, $119 million mega-deal that began with the 2005 season — the star center fielder got off to a difficult start in Queens.

And the fans let him hear it.

“I was lucky enough to have a wife that is a life coach,” Beltrán, 49, said Saturday at Citi Field. “She used to say to me, ‘Hey Carlos, don’t worry, it’s not personal.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but it feels personal. They pointed at me.’

“But you know what? I needed to understand that they were screaming at the performance. They wanted me to perform.”

Some 21 years later, the Mets retired Beltrán’s No. 15 during a pregame ceremony Saturday afternoon at Citi Field, formally recognizing him as one of the franchise’s all-time greats.

In seven seasons with the Mets from 2005-11, the switch-hitting Beltrán earned five All-Star selections and won three Gold Gloves. His 149 home runs in a Mets uniform rank eighth in team history, while his 559 RBIs rank seventh.

In July, Beltrán entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame with a Mets cap on his plaque.

All of that would have seemed improbable back in 2005, when Beltrán — still adjusting to New York after previously playing in only small-market Kansas City and Houston — managed just 16 home runs and a .744 OPS.

Or in 2006, when Beltrán — after bouncing back with a 41-homer, .982-OPS campaign and a fourth-place finish for National League MVP — took a called third strike from St. Louis’ Adam Wainwright for the final out in Game 7 of the NLCS.

That’s why Saturday’s number retirement, while an incredible honor in its own right, provided what Beltrán considers “closure” on his up-and-down relationship with the Mets’ passionate fan base.

“They were booing somebody that they thought could be doing better for the team, could do better for the organization, and to help the team win. I appreciate that now,” said Beltrán, who wore No. 15 for his wife, Jessica, whose birthday is Dec. 15.

There were nothing but cheers Saturday as Beltrán became the ninth player to have his number retired by the Mets, and the seventh since Steve and Alex Cohen bought the team in 2020.

Beltrán played for six teams over his 20 MLB seasons, totaling 435 home runs, 1,587 RBIs, 312 stolen bases and nine All-Star selections.

Despite the adversity, Beltrán looks back fondly at his Mets tenure, describing it Saturday as “my best years in baseball” and an important time in his growth as a player and person.

“Coming from a small-market team and all of a sudden being in New York, there were things that I needed to learn,” said Beltrán, who later played for the Yankees from 2014-16.

“I didn’t have those tools in Kansas City, dealing with the media, dealing with the responsibilities, dealing with the expectations. Dealing with the ups and downs of baseball in a city like New York is the real deal. But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that when I look at my career, [out of] the 20 years, I played 10 in New York.”

Beltrán’s lessons proved invaluable to Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, a fellow Puerto Rican who arrived in 2021 via trade with relatably lofty expectations.

“I live in the Upper East [Side] because of him. [Beltrán is] somebody that when I first got traded here, I called him and he talked to me. It’s little things, like the realtor. ‘Hey, I have a person that’s gonna help you accommodate yourself in the city,’ ” Lindor said Saturday.

“And then, I didn’t play welI. I sucked at the beginning,” Lindor said. “And having him there to comfort me and say, ‘Hey, this stuff is gonna happen. It’s OK. You’re gonna go through stuff like this, but you’re gonna come out on the other side … was huge for me.”

Beltrán made an early impression, too, on interim manager Andy Green, who recalls watching the outfielder at Mets spring training when both were still playing.

“I remember him challenging himself relentlessly. When you talk about Hall of Fame players, it usually finds its way back to work ethic and [being] willing to do things that other people aren’t willing to do,” Green said.

“He had some tennis-ball machine that shot balls out at about 120 mph. It had colors or numbers on them. I would get in there and I couldn’t tell the ball was yellow. I couldn’t see anything, and he would be out there working on his eyes, working on his vision, working on everything.”

The Mets hired Beltrán in November 2019 to be their manager, only to fire him two months later after he was the only player named in MLB’s investigation into the Houston Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal.

Asked Saturday if he planned to interview for the Mets’ managerial vacancy this offseason, Beltrán was non-committal.

But Beltrán continues to influence the present-day Mets, be it through the front-office special assistant role he’s held since 2023 — or simply through the battle-tested advice he’s given their players over the years.

“I think my skin got thicker playing in this city,” Beltrán said.

“Because of the moments that I experienced here, I’m better. I’m better in every aspect, and I want to use the experience to continue to share it with the next generation, share it with other people that might be filling the same shoes that I felt when I first came here.”