The baseball world is talking about Carlos Beltran, the Mets are talking about a street.
Mets COO Jeff Wilpon was asked about the sign-stealing controversy involving Beltran — who stepped down as Mets manager soon after — during his appearance Thursday at a ceremony celebrating the renaming of Mike Piazza Drive near the Mets spring training facility in Port St. Lucie. Wilpon responded with the tone-deafness that the franchise has become famous for.
“Does that have to do with the investigation? No, sorry. We are talking about Mike Piazza Drive today,” when a reporter asked Wilpon about it in a media scrum following the event.
“I don’t know, you better watch out, the police are going to get us off Mike Piazza Drive,” Wilpon then responded to a follow-up question.
The Mets spent two days deliberating on Beltran’s future after he was the only player named in the MLB report for his role in organizing the Astros’ shady behavior. The Astros fired A.J. Hinch on Monday and the Red Sox followed suit on Tuesday with Alex Cora, who was previously a bench coach in Houston and mentioned prominently in the report.
Now the Mets are also looking for a new manager, though there were no answers on Mike Piazza Drive.