By Jack Hendon

MMO’s own Jack Ramsey is reporting that Carlos Beltran will be the new manager of the New York Mets according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Additionally, we have also learned that Terry Collins will be the bench coach for Beltran.

This will be Beltran’s first managerial job in any capacity. The options had been narrowed down to Beltran and ESPN/ESPN Deportes analyst Eduardo Perez earlier this afternoon, as Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had reported.

Beltran, 42, has spent the last two seasons working with the New York Yankees as a special advisor to general manager Brian Cashman. He’d been a candidate to take over as their manager following Joe Girardi‘s firing in the 2017-18 offseason, but ultimately lost the position to Aaron Boone. Beltran had reportedly informed the Yankees during his interview that his ideal bench coach would have been Collins himself.

Collins, of course, is best known for his time as the franchise’s longest-tenured manager, overseeing a National League championship in 2015 and Wild Card game appearance in 2016 within a 551-583 record between 2011 and 2017. Collins resigned from his post following a frustrating and controversial conclusion to a 72-90 2017, but was reassigned to a special assistant position immediately after the season.

He will be reunited in the dugout with such players as Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, Jeurys Familia, Amed Rosario, Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes, and possibly a few others by the end of the offseason.

The two last worked together in different capacities with the Mets for the better part of the 2011 season, when Beltran (then 34) patrolled right field through the first half of what would be the final year of a seven-year, $119.5MM contract with the team.

Over the span of that contract, the center fielder hit .280/.369/.500 with 149 home runs, 559 RBI, and 100 stolen bases, appearing in four All-Star games, winning two Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and finishing with the third-highest offensive WAR in franchise history at 31.1 (behind David Wright‘s 50.4 and Darryl Strawberry‘s 36.6). He would be dealt to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Zack Wheeler at the 2011 trade deadline.

Such concludes an exhaustive, month-long process of organizational interviews that included Mike Bell,Skip Schumaker, Joe Girardi, Tony DeFrancesco, and Luis Rojas, with such names as Tim Bogar, Derek Shelton, Pat Murphy, and Eduardo Perez all receiving second – and the latter three even receiving a third interview.

Beltran had expressed an explicit interest in the Mets, and only in a position managing.