Beltran Is New King of Queens

Well behind in the games of baseball and relevance, the New York Mets on Sunday sought again to gain on the crosstown, establishment Yankees, nearing a deal with outfielder Carlos Beltran, free agency’s closest thing to immediate legitimacy.

The Mets appear to have outlasted the Yankees, Chicago Cubs and Beltran’s former team, the Houston Astros, and Sunday night were negotiating the finer points of a seven-year, $119-million contract believed to include an $11-million signing bonus and a full no-trade clause.

Assuming agreement on the details, Beltran is expected to undergo a physical examination early this week; the Mets expected Beltran’s agent, Scott Boras, in New York this morning.

“We’re right on the edge there,� said a baseball source involved in the negotiations.

Beltran’s contract would be the biggest in baseball since Jason Giambi signed for seven years and $120 million with the Yankees in 2001, and only the 10th $100-million deal ever.

Since concluding the 2004 season 20 games under .500, 25 games out of first place in the National League East and 1.5 million customers behind the Yankees, the Mets have added free-agent pitcher Pedro Martinez and were on the verge of signing Beltran, who became an October sensation by leading the Astros to within one victory of the World Series. The Mets also are expected to pursue free agent Carlos Delgado, an acquisition that could drive their payroll to about $115 million.

Regarded as a solid and developing player in 6 1/2 seasons with the Kansas City Royals (he was American League rookie of the year in 1999) and three months with the Astros, Beltran was an All-Star for the first time in 2004, then batted .435 and hit eight home runs in the postseason.

So he advanced on free agency with the momentum of big production in the most important time of the year, with the Astros hoping to build on the first playoff series win in franchise history, the Mets rebuilding behind a new, ambitious general manager, and the Yankees just being the Yankees.

Of Beltran’s four remaining suitors, the Cubs went first, frightened off by bidding that breached $100 million in the last week. The Astros and Yankees fell out Saturday night, the Astros in the minutes before midnight over Beltran’s insistence on the no-trade clause, the Yankees perhaps having finally -- and for the first time -- already spent to the end of George Steinbrenner’s considerable wallet.

Beltran previously had rejected arbitration with his former team, giving the Astros a deadline of midnight Saturday to reach a deal.

“It slipped through our fingers in the last, last few minutes,� Astro owner Drayton McLane told the Houston Chronicle. “It should never, never have gotten to this.�

Wild-card playoff entrants last season, in part because of their midseason trade for Beltran, the Astros already had lost Jeff Kent to free agency and Lance Berkman to knee surgery for at least the early season, and remain hopeful that Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens will choose resumption of his career over retirement. He stands to make as much as $16 million in the arbitration process.

“We have to move on,� Astro General Manager Tim Purpura told Associated Press. “It wasn’t meant to be.�

In the absence of Beltran, who in a short time became very popular in Houston, Craig Biggio, Willy Taveras or Jason Lane will play center field. The Astros could make a play for free agent Magglio Ordonez, the former Chicago White Sox outfielder coming off knee surgery. Boras, Ordonez’s agent, said his client would work out for interested teams in the coming weeks.

After meeting with Beltran and Boras in December, then huddling with his advisors this week and making a concerted late run at Beltran as the Mets closed, Steinbrenner chose to keep Bernie Williams in center field and find satisfaction with the winter additions of Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Tino Martinez.

The Yankees owe more than $25 million in luxury tax based on last year’s $188-million payroll, and the payroll is expected to ascend to about $210 million -- as much as twice the Met payroll -- next season. Williams and Kevin Brown have one year remaining on their contracts, and the Yankees owe Giambi more than $80 million over the next five years.

All of which created an opening for the woeful Mets, who’d fallen back to mediocrity after reaching the 2000 World Series, which they lost, to the Yankees, of course. Waging an intracity battle familiar to the many general managers who’d come before him, Omar Minaya went hard after the two players he believed would restore credibility in Queens.

Just as he’d flown with a Met contingent to the Dominican Republic to wrest Martinez from the Yankees and the incumbent Boston Red Sox, Minaya traveled last week to Puerto Rico to visit Beltran.

According to sources, Minaya impressed Beltran with his plans to expand the Met payroll and his promise to field a winner. A small-town spirit who is believed to prefer the less glitzy lifestyles of Kansas City and Houston, along with his native Manati, Beltran was won over by Minaya and Met owner Fred Wilpon, a mammoth contract, and the promise of a no-trade clause.

Martinez, who agreed to a four-year, $53-million contract, heads a rotation of Tom Glavine, Kris Benson, Steve Trachsel and Victor Zambrano.

Beltran would play center field, and Mike Cameron, when he returns around May 1 from wrist surgery, would play right. Cliff Floyd will play left field, unless the Mets trade him, which is their intent.

Beltran and Delgado would energize a Met offense that struck out among the most often in the National League and walked among the least, and finished 14th in batting average and on-base percentage in a 16-team league.

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Big Bucks

Carlos Beltran is about to become the 10th player in baseball history to agree to a deal worth $100 million or more -- and his deal is the biggest since Jason Giambi got a $120-million, seven-year contract from the New York Yankees in December 2001. Beltran’s average annual salary of $17 million ties Houston’s Jeff Bagwell for the seventh-highest in baseball.

* Alex Rodriguez...$25.2 million

* Manny Ramirez...$20 million

* Derek Jeter...$18.9 million

* Sammy Sosa...$18 million

* Barry Bonds...$18 million

* Jason Giambi...$17.1 million

* Jeff Bagwell...$17 million

* Carlos Beltran...$17 million