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The Mets, Tigers, Yankees and Cubs have been rumored to be the primary suitors for Carlos Beltran's services.
Carlos Beltran's stay in Houston almost certainly will be short.
The Astros failed to reach an agreement with the All-Star center fielder before an 11 p.m. CST Saturday deadline, and Beltran is all but certain to leave the team he helped come within a win of its first World Series appearance.
Under the rules of baseball's labor contract, Houston cannot sign Beltran until May 1 - virtually assuring he'll go to another team. The Astros had been bidding for Beltran against the New York Mets and perhaps other teams.
Beltran and agent Scott Boras made the Astros sweat this one out. Houston general manager Tim Purpura had said that Houston made its final offer to Beltran on Thursday. Boras had been seeking more than $100 million.
"Scott called us to let us know they were going to go in a different direction," Purpura said. "I don't know if shaken is the right word, certainly disappointed."
Beltran was still speaking Saturday with the Mets, who dispatched a delegation to Puerto Rico to meet with Beltran and Boras on Monday. Over the past few months, the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers also were thought to be pursuing Beltran.
Regardless, the courtship of Beltran will be a bittersweet memory for the Astros.
He came to Houston in a midseason trade from Kansas City, with the Astros hoping he'd provide a spark for a team that was clearly underachieving. Beltran did his part, but the Astros continued to stumble well into the summer, raising speculation that he'd be traded again.
Houston kept him and was glad it did. He was a big reason the Astros finished 36-10 and made the playoffs.
Beltran then sent his price soaring during a remarkable postseason run with the Astros, batting .417 in the NL championship series with four home runs, five RBIs and four steals. He also hit .455 with four homers and nine RBIs in the first round.
Since the Astros' season ended in Game 7 of the NLCS in St. Louis, Houston officials had little contact with Beltran.
During negotiations, Purpura said the Astros only talked with Beltran once. That was during a Dec. 22 meeting at the team's spring training camp in Kissimmee, Fla.
And as the deadline approached Saturday, Purpura said the Astros and Boras didn't really discuss specifics of the offer until late in the afternoon.
"The serious parts of this only happened in the last six hours," Purpura said. "Really, I think we ran out of time. Mostly, it's time and distance. Certainly I regret the fact that we didn't deal with some of these things earlier - but we didn't control the pace of the negotiations."
Without Beltran and the loss of All-Star second baseman Jeff Kent to the Dodgers, the Astros will have a hard time persuading Roger Clemens not to retire.
Clemens, 42, has said he would make a decision in January whether to retire or play. The Rocket intended to quit after the 2003 season, then changed his mind and signed with his hometown team, winning the Cy Young Award for a record seventh time.
"Certainly we will welcome Roger back," Purpura said. "We're not going to shift into a rebuilding mode because of this."
Purpura said the candidates to replace Beltran in center will most likely be Jason Lane, minor-league prospect Willy Taveras or Craig Biggio, who held the position before Beltran joined the team. He also said Houston had not ruled out a trade to upgrade the spot.
Source: AP