Yankees general manager Brian Cashman gave new Mets manager Carlos Beltran a glowing review Wednesday on WFAN with Mike Francesa.
The Mets hired Beltran after he spent his past year with the Yankees as Cashman's special adviser and learned about the game of baseball from the front office's perspective.
Fused with Beltran's 20 years of playing experience, including with the Mets (2005-11) and Yankees (2014-16), the nine-time All-Star's all-around experience has Cashman among the believers as he embarks on his managerial chapter.
"People may forget -- he went through the interview process for our vacant manager spot and that was a very short period of time after he retired, and so it speaks to the level of presence and leadership that kind of resonated at least with me and our group to have the right to be in that room and earn the right to be there and listen to what he had to say and he definitely checks a lot of boxes," Cashman said of Beltran, who interviewed for the Yankees' vacancy in November 2017. "When we chose to go Aaron Boone, I didn't want Beltran walking out of that office. I wanted to somehow keep a hold of his content, his abilities. Obviously, an exceptional baseball guy. A borderline Hall of Fame career -- if not a Hall of Fame career -- and the ability to communicate and connect, and so our interest in him was a lot of different ways.
"At the time, he wanted to take a year off instead and spend time with the family and so he was willing to do that -- a special assignment -- which he did that to us in a great deal and got a chance to learn and grow from this side of the fence and obviously it's propelled him. He propelled us -- he made us better in a lot of categories -- and I'd like to think that we helped at least give him a better perspective of how that front office stuff works because we're three floors up. The players really know the business side, to some degree, because they live it. But actually being a part of it gives you a whole new exposure to it, so I'm sure that'll serve him well as he moves forward.
"And I'm not surprised, obviously, by his emergence as a manager with the Mets or anybody. He's going to check so many boxes and it'll be interesting to watch it play out, although it's across the streets, somewhat, in our competitor's arena. I think they hired a good one and he's going to serve them well."