At long last, the Carlos Beltran trade is unofficially official. Though nobody's made an announcement, the final possible stumbling block has been cleared, as Beltran has agreed to waive his no-trade clause to go to the Giants. Joe Kay:
Carlos Beltran accepted a trade to the San Francisco Giants, leaving the New York Mets to join his new team after saying goodbye Wednesday.
Beltran and his .904 OPS will go to San Francisco, where he's expected to play right field. The Giants are in first place in the NL West, but they've struggled to score runs all season long, so Beltran will obviously help in that regard. He's only a short-term rental, but he's about as good as a rental gets, and for a team with dreams of a title defense, he's a major get.
And for the Mets - who will pay $4 million of the $6 million remaining on Beltran's contract - they receive top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler in a one-for-one trade. Wheeler's a 21-year-old righty capable of generating strikeouts and groundballs, and could have a future as a front-of-the-line starter. Especially if he improves his command by 10-20 percent.
This is a little rough on the Mets, considering they're 53-51 and have been playing well. But a Beltran trade was inevitable, and now they'll just have to make do with what they have. What they have is Lucas Duda. From Kay's article:
Collins said Lucas Duda would play in right field a lot after Beltran is gone.
"I'm probably more comfortable at first base and left field because I haven't played a lot out there," Duda said. "I'll try my best out there and see what happens."
"He'd better get comfortable real fast," Collins said.
All right.
Beltran will be a free agent after the season. Per his contract, the Giants cannot offer him arbitration, and so they will not receive any compensation in the event that he signs elsewhere.