Right Field: … Where the starter next April has to be Carlos Beltran, assuming certain reasonable outcomes. Consider that Beltran has an $18.5 million contract for 2011, a history of bad knees, just turned 34, and his OPS this year is .709.
Who exactly is trading for him? A team willing to take on almost none of his salary, and part with an unimpressive prospect for their trouble, I figure.
So since the Mets could pay some other team $17 million for the chance to see Beltran rebound, why not pay him a little more and see if he can help you in the final year of his deal? As recently as last season, he hit at an elite level, and though it is a foolishly small sample, his OPS is up above .900 in September.
I don’t know what will happen with Beltran this offseason. His agent, Scott Boras, has grumbled — with reason — about the way team brass “anonymously” fumed to reporters after Beltran, because he had other charitable commitments, missed an optional trip to Walter Reed hospital to visit veterans.
So I imagine politics will play into whatever happens with Beltran this offseason, for better or worse. But that said, I agree with Howard. Even if Beltran demonstrates some massive turnaround in the next two weeks, no team is likely to take on his contract unless the Mets essentially provide the Gary Matthews Jr. treatment — eating most of it and accepting little in terms of players in return.
And if they’re going to do that, then, man, I don’t know. It’s hard to bet that he’ll ever be anything like healthy again, but if you’re just looking in terms of back-of-the-baseball-card likelihood for a bounceback, Beltran seems a reasonable bet.
Basically what Howard said. He’s got too much potential upside to be kicked to the curb like he’s Gary Matthews Jr. They would just need a very solid backup plan for if Beltran gets hurt or proves ineffective.
Tedquarters 
It would be so typical Mets to eat $17 million of Beltran’s deal to trade him, but keep Ollie/Castillo around next year.
The problem with rightfield is that in order to be effective fielder you have to be able to stop on a dime and change direction to throw. Carlos Beltran can’t do that. He has to slow down and stop gradually to help protect his knee so left field would be a better option but that’s where Bay is. My suggestion. See if Red Sox would like Bay back and if the Mets can do that then may be pry Ichiro from the Mariners. In a perfect world Beltran would have had a big September so he would have value to a team like the Rays where he could play centerfield and dh to protect his knees.
Watching Beltran’s fall from grace has been pretty painful this year. It hurts to see him be as bad as he is since he’s one of my favorite players.
One thing though, despite how bad he’s been this season I’d still rather him than the other centerfielders other teams are trotting out there. Luckily we do have Angel Pagan.
I don’t know if saying “though it is a foolishly small sample, he still has a .900 OPS in September” is really any different than saying “and his OPS in September is .900!” You can’t have it both ways, sabr-dudes.