After a rough homestand with the Reds and Braves, the Mets’ first-half ended with a flurry of good news: Beltran showed up, three Mets pitchers shut down the braves, Jerry Manuel confirmed that Angel Pagan will get the lion’s share of playing time in right field, and Jeff Francoeur was cool about it.

Cool on all counts. Frenchy becomes about a billion times more lovable as a right-handed bench bat. He mashes left-handed pitching and affords the team defensive flexibility that Chris Carter does not. All but three of Francoeur’s 6849 innings in Major League outfields have come in right, but since Pagan can play all three spots and Beltran will certainly need rest, Francoeur’s arm becomes a valuable late-inning weapon whenever the team has a big enough lead to shoulder his puny on-base percentage.

Replacing Francoeur with Beltran in the lineup massively upgrades the Mets’ offense, even if Beltran is a mere shell of his former self. Assuming Jose Reyes returns to full health soon, the Mets’ lineup should be good enough to keep the team in the pennant race regardless of if they improve their pitching.

Oh, and a fun note, for what it’s worth: Since word came down that Beltran was ready to start playing rehab games on June 22, Angel Pagan has hit .412 with a .446 on-base percentage and a .686 slugging (though he missed a few games with the oblique injury). Jeff Francoeur has hit .197 with a .234 OBP and a .295 slugging.

If you’ve read this site with any regularity you know I don’t put much stock in small samples in isolation or in assuming a player’s inherent clutchness, but it’s hard not to give it up to Pagan for distinguishing himself from Francoeur once it became clear he had to. I’m certain it’s more an effect of Pagan being the better player than Pagan stepping up under pressure, but he picked a very convenient time to announce his superiority with so much authority.