Speaking Thursday after the Mets and manager Carlos Beltran mutually agreed to part ways, COO Jeff Wilpon and GM Brodie Van Wagenen went over the timeline of events and went into detail about the decision-making process that led to Beltran being out as manager.
Van Wagenen said the Mets were unaware of the sign-stealing situation with the Astros when Beltran was hired on Nov. 1 and that the organization first found out about the involvement of Beltran on Nov. 12 when the initial story in The Athletic was published.
At that time, the Mets deferred to MLB for them to lead the investigation.
On Wednesday morning, two days after Major League Baseball's investigation concluded and the report (mentioning Beltran) was released by commissioner Rob Manfred, Wilpon and Van Wagenen met with staff from the commissioner's office before flying to Port St. Lucie to meet with Beltran.
On Thursday morning, Wilpon and Van Wagenen again met with Beltran, and a decision was reached to mutually part ways.
Van Wagenen would not get into specifics regarding the Mets' conversations with the commissioner's office, including whether they learned more about Beltran's role in the scandal.
During the conference call, which lasted roughly 30 minutes, Van Wagenen was guarded regarding certain specifics (including the above), but explained why the organization and Beltran felt him remaining on as manager was untenable.
"When we met with Carlos, we had to make an assessment of 'where do we go from here.' In Carlos' thought process as well as ours, we both agreed it was going to be incredibly challenging and incredibly difficult to do the job in the way in which he intended and the way in which he could utilize the best of his abilities. Once that decision was made, we reached the conclusion that we're announcing today."
Pressed further on exactly what Beltran would be unable to do, Van Wagenen referred to Beltran's statement from earlier Thursday before elaborating a bit.
"There were mistakes he made as a player, there were mistakes that he recognized as a leader as a player. In assessing all of the information, all of the events that have transpired, it was just clear to both sides that in order to execute the job the way in which it needed to be that it was gonna prove very challenging."
Wilpon added that while the Mets had heard before the report came out that Beltran wasn't going to be suspended, things changed with "how prominent" Beltran was in Manfred's report.
As far as whether Major League Baseball offered any "guidance" or attempted to sway the Mets in any direction when it came to Beltran's future, Wilpon said "absolutely not."
"We got information from them, they helped fill in some questions for some of the topics we asked them about. But there was no direction that they told us we should go or not go. They specifically said it was a club decision what we should do."
Given the freedom to make that decision, the Mets and Beltran have parted ways. But while a clean break has occurred before Beltran was able to manage a single game, the questions about what caused it in the first place remain as the fallout from this scandal rages on.