There was a time between when reports of the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal emerged and when the Mets parted ways with Carlos Beltran that it seemed like they could keep their new manager and ride it out.

But as new details of Beltran's alleged involvement trickled out, it was clear where things were heading. And Mets legend David Wright, though appreciative of everything Beltran did for him and the Mets, agreed with the outcome.

"There's choices, decisions, consequences," Wright said on the Metrospective Podcast with Pete McCarthy and Tim Britton. "You have choices, you make the decisions. If you choose wrongly, you suffer the consequences.

"As great as Carlos was to me as a younger player -- our first spring training, he made me work out with him every day. And it was eye-opening for me. ... You break the rules and you get caught, you've gotta suffer the consequences. Unfortunately, that's where Carlos is now. And that's no, obviously, disrespect to Carlos. It is what it is and he broke the rules, and he's taking it as well as he could've. He's apologized and hopefully everybody moves on."

While Beltran's alleged transgressions had nothing to do with the Mets, one big concern was how it would impact his ability to manage in New York.

"It obviously would've been a dark cloud," Wright said. "The questions that he would've had to answer probably on a daily basis, the questions that the players would've had to answer on a daily basis. It would've all been centered around this scandal that the Mets had nothing to do with. And that's a tough way to start out a career.

"Do I think he would've made a great manager? Yes. Do I think he's one of the smartest baseball people I've ever been around? Yes. It's just tough having those outside circumstances kind of follow you around for your first year."

Wright also touched on how tremendous Beltran was as a Mets player, touting his numbers and how much he helped him as a young player.

"I certainly don't want to speak negatively of Carlos, because again I'm very thankful how he treated me," Wright explained. "And for the production, I think he's one of the most underrated Mets players of all time. His numbers are ridiculously stupid. I don't think he gets credit for doing what he did for our organization.

Was Wright the secret weapon for Jacob deGrom's extension?

There were some rumblings soon after the Mets extended deGrom that front office advisor Wright had a hand in it.

As Wright tells it, he was "dropping off donuts desk-to-desk" from a place in Port St. Lucie in the days before the deal was reached when Brodie Van Wagenen told him to pull up a chair.

When Van Wagenen showed him parameters of the potential deGrom deal and asked if it's something Wright would've signed, he said he didn't know. And then they got to talking.

"We went back and forth on a couple of scenarios," Wright said. "From a player's perspective, I gave him what was important to me when I had gone through this a couple of times. I'm not sure I got the deal done, but hopefully I was able to add a little something to it."

Wright said he helped with some of the "structuring" of the deal, but that he'd keep the specifics to himself.

"I know he loves the organization, loves the Mets," Wright said about deGrom, who is also one of his closest friends. " ... I'm glad we got it done and it seems like both sides are pretty happy with it. Hopefully he wins a couple more Cy Young's and brings some more hardware to the Mets."

Video: Gary, Keith and Ron talk about the Mets black jerseys

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