The Mets fired Carlos Beltran on Thursday, just 77 days after hiring him as their new manager, 73 days after introducing him at a Citi Field news conference and, even more to the point, three days after Rob Manfred rocked the baseball world with a report on illegal sign-stealing by the Astros.

Plenty of questions emerged from this whip-quick chain of events that left Beltran as the third skipper let go in four days as a result of this scandal. Here are some answers:

Q: So what’s the deal? Did the Mets and Carlos Beltran truly “mutually part ways,” as the Mets worded it in their press release?

A: Believe it or not, there is some truth to that wording. Look, the Mets drove this bus. They decided to move on from Beltran. Yet once the Mets arrived at that decision, Beltran, understanding he had erred badly, stood down.

Q: So what’s the financial agreement they reached?

A: Beltran had a three-year deal worth around $3 million That is now off the Mets’ books. As part of a negotiated settlement, sources say the team made a donation of about $200,000 to Beltran’s eponymous foundation.

Q: What happens to the coaching staff that Beltran and the Mets’ front office assembled?

A: Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen mentioned in Thursday’s telephone news conference that Beltran’s replacement “will have a tremendous coaching staff already in place that we have assembled over the last several weeks.” Hence it appears wholesale changes aren’t in order. Quality-control coach Luis Rojas interviewed for the managing job and could get another look for the new opening, as could new bench coach Hensley Meulens.

Q: How much should we fault the Mets for not asking Beltran, during the interview process, about his involvement in any such chicanery?

A: A little. For sure plenty of scuttlebutt loomed for years about the Astros’ underhanded ways. Shoot, Houston manager A.J. Hinch — Van Wagenen’s teammate at Stanford — discussed it in an American League Championship Series press conference. Neverthless, Beltran, an Astro for only one season, hadn’t been directly linked to anything prior to the Mets’ hiring of him.

Q: How much should we fault the Mets for not asking Beltran, after a report by The Athletic fingered him as a ringleader on the 2017 Astros, about his involvement in any such chicanery?

A: A lot. Van Wagenen’s quote on Nov. 14, “…[At] this point, I don’t see any reason why this is a Mets situation,” goes up there with “Come get us” as the GM’s biggest doozies. Apparently Van Wagenen and the Mets carried that philosophy all the way until Manfred divulged his report.

Q: Speaking of Van Wagenen, how does this debacle impact his job security?

A: While he’ll get to hire this next manager and run the 2020 Mets barring more shocking developments, it’s hard to imagine future Mets owner Steve Cohen being impressed with what he has seen from Van Wagenen in the last year-plus. To use parlance Cohen can understand, Van Wagenen seems like a falling stock.

Q: What does this mess do to Beltran’s Hall of Fame chances?

A: Keep in mind that even upon his retirement, Beltran — who will first be eligible on the 2023 ballot — didn’t stand as a slam-dunk candidate, his profile exciting the analytics crowd more than the old-school voters. And this setback naturally will only hurt his cause. Beltran now becomes a test case in the same vein as proven illegal performance-enhancing drug users like Rafael Palmeiro and Manny Ramirez — just with a different transgression. It hasn’t gone very well for them so far.

Q: Will Beltran be regarded as a former Mets manager?

A: Statistically, no. Baseball-Reference.com doesn’t identify beloved former Met (fittingly) Wally Backman as a manager for the four days he ran the Diamondbacks before Arizona bailed on him due to the emergence of ghosts from Backman’s past. Anecdotally? It’s to be determined. Looking again at this one precedent, the Diamondbacks don’t mention Backman’s coming and going at all in their media guide’s historical chronology. Will the Mets follow suit? Of course, Beltran already occupies considerable space in their media guide thanks to his playing accomplishments.

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