Carlos Beltran lost his job as Mets manager partly due to concern that further details about his involvement in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal would emerge.
On Tuesday, a new report in The Athletic painted Beltran as not only one of the ringleaders of the scheme, but someone who intimidated players who were against it.
On Thursday, Beltran's former teammate Carlos Correa called BS on those allegations.
"The thing I have a problem with (when) I read that report is that we were scared of him or we feel intimidated," Correa said. "We didn't feel scared of Beltran, we didn't feel intimidated. He was the nicest guy that we could ever have. He was the best teammate we ever had. Beltran was a leader of the clubhouse, but we all had a say in everything we were doing in there. Whatever he said and whatever we were doing, we had the chance to stop it as a team. Everybody. Everybody had the chance to say something and we didn't.
"Whoever the anonymous source is that's saying that we felt intimidated, we're too young to say something, that's just straight up bulls--t. Beltran didn't intimidate nobody. Beltran's the nicest guy. ... you can talk to every single guy that was here in 2017. Beltran is an unbelievable gentleman and nobody -- not even you guys -- nobody, nobody, would feel intimidated by his leadership and whatever he has to say. He showed us how to play baseball hard. He was a veteran. He was inspiring. Whenever we were slumping, he was there for us. So I don't see a person that's a mentor and that's there for you when you're struggling as an intimidating person"
The Astros, including owner Jim Crane, new manager Dusty Baker (for some reason), Alex Bregman, and Jose Altuve spoke during a press conference Thursday morning where they gave statements and answered questions (after Bregman and Altuve left) about the sign-stealing scandal and fallout that led to the firings of manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow.
After the press conference was over, the clubhouse opened to reporters. And Correa and George Springer -- saying Beltran "had been great" as a teammate -- came to Beltran's defense.
Aside from releasing a statement after mutually parting ways with the Mets, Beltran has yet to publicly comment on what happened with the Astros.
