Carlos Beltran has been there before.
On July 28, 2005, he returned to Houston for the first time after leaving the Astros as a free agent for the Mets.
He was booed relentlessly by Astros fans, both at the plate and when he was in center.
Afterward, he said, “It’s hard to block out the boos. It’s hard to block out all that.”
So Beltran, now a special assistant to Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, has an idea of what Juan Soto is going through this weekend in his return to The Bronx with the Mets.
“No one wants to be booed,” Beltran told The Post before Saturday’s 3-2 Mets win. “But this was expected. This is a guy that last year did an incredible job for the Yankees. He was an asset for the organization. As a free agent, he signed with the Mets. I feel he was even expecting it himself.”
Beltran likened it to his experience in his first year with the Mets after he spent less than a year with the Astros following his 2004 trade from Kansas City.
But Beltran dominated the postseason with the Astros, who then saw him go to Queens.
“When I went back to Houston that first time, I never heard a player being booed the way I was booed,’’ Beltran said Saturday with a laugh. “But you have to go with the ride and try not to let that affect your performance or preparation. Sometimes you can get caught up in trying to do too much. I think Soto did a great job [Friday].”
Beltran noted how Soto “saluted the fans” with his sarcastic tipping of his helmet when nearly the entire stadium stood and booed.
“That was great,’’ Beltran said. “It is part of baseball and you’ve got to deal with it.”
Though the fans have been loud and relentless, they’ve been relatively well-behaved.
“No one was disrespectful,’’ Beltran said. “It’s what being a fan is about: expressing home field and giving your team an advantage. I don’t think it’s personal.”
Beltran said Reggie Jackson repeated his famous comment, “They don’t boo [nobodies],” to him.
“He told me to take it as a good thing,” Beltran said.
Soto seems to have a similar attitude.
He ended up walking three times in the Mets’ loss Friday.
“He had good at-bats,’’ Beltran said. “That can be hard if you let it bother you.”
It was more of the same Saturday, as Soto walked, singled and scored a run.
On Saturday, there were more Mets fans in attendance than Friday, but the boos were still noisy enough that Clarke Schmidt said he had to turn up the volume on his PitchCom.
Schmidt called the fans’ reaction “to be expected.’’
“He was a lot of fun to play with, but given the circumstances, you were expecting a boo there,’’ the right-hander said.
