Carlos Beltran hired by YES as Yankees game announcer
Yankees rightfielder Carlos Beltran comes out from the dugout for batting practice at Yankee Stadium during the American League Wild Card Game on Oct. 6, 2015. Credit: Jim McIsaac
After two years out of the game, is 2022 going to be a busy year for Carlos Beltran?
YES.
Beltran, the top new candidate on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, has been added to the YES stable of Yankees game announcers.
YES announcer Jack Curry broke the news on Friday on Twitter. Beltran, the former Mets and Yankees star and would-have-been Mets manager, will work 36 Yankees games in the booth this season.
Beltran will pick up some of the slack left by David Cone’s reduced schedule because of his new gig with ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball and the retirement of Ken Singleton.
Beltran, 44, was hired as Mets manager in the 2019 offseason. But he was let go soon after news of his involvement as a player in the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal became public.
Before that, Beltran was a special adviser to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman after retiring following the Astros' 2017 World Series-winning season, which some consider tainted.
Beltran will be on the baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year. It will be interesting to see if the voters hold his involvement in the Astros scandal against him.
Beltran was a nine-time All-Star, a Rooke of the Year, and won three Gold Gloves in centerfield.
Beltran hit .279 with 435 home runs and 312 stolen bases in a 20-year career. He added 16 postseason home runs, including eight in a playoff performance for the ages for the Astros in 2004.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
