SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mets officials must sit with Carlos Beltran in the coming days and ask their new manager when it comes to electronic cheating with the 2017 Astros — what did you know and what did you do?

To this point, the new Mets manager publicly continues to tell The Post that in his final year as a player, he lived up to his reputation as a legal on-field sleuth by using pre-game film study and in-game observation to steal signs. That is viewed within the game as ethical brinkmanship.

But as part of a burgeoning story implicating the Astros in violating MLB rules about electronic spying, The Athletic, citing sources, reported that Beltran (a player on the 2017 team) and Alex Cora (then Houston’s bench coach and now Boston’s manager) played a key role in devising the illegal sign-stealing system that their former pitcher Mike Fiers and sources revealed to The Athletic.

In that system, The Athletic reported, the Astros are alleged to have used a center-field camera relayed to a monitor near the dugout to steal signs in real time.

Cora refused comment to The Post, citing the MLB investigation, same as Astros manager A.J. Hinch. MLB’s Department of Investigation plans to talk to both plus Beltran, plus they hope Fiers and many others to try to gain a fuller picture of what was done, whether it is ongoing and if other teams are in violation, as well, though sources say at present the examination centers on the Astros.

For now, Brodie Van Wagenen is deferring to MLB too. When asked if he felt compelled to talk to Beltran, Van Wagenen said, “Anything that happened, happened with another organization, with Houston. … I have no idea if anything did or did not (occur), but at this point I don’t see any reason why this is a Mets situation.”

But, of course, it is a Mets situation, just like this would, for example, become a Phillies problem with their new manager Joe Girardi if the 2017 Yankees were implicated because Girardi was that club’s skipper.

The Mets want to quarantine themselves from a matter in which their organization is not currently being investigated. But history shows the Mets are experts at becoming contaminated. They should be as proactive as is within their power to avoid revelations that surprise (and humiliate) them. Van Wagenen took a lot of time at Beltran’s introductory press conference going through five tenets of why he hired Beltran, and No. 2 was trustworthiness. Two of his key lieutenants, Allard Baird and Omar Minaya, vouched for Beltran. If it turns out that he was a central figure to this cheating scandal, all of them are going to look ridiculous, especially if Beltran is retroactively suspended, forcing the Mets early in a managerial tenure to wonder if Beltran is viable moving forward.

So, this is why when Beltran returns from his 20th anniversary trip to Iceland, Van Wagenen, Baird and Minaya should talk to their new manager and insist on transparency. Remember what worsens punishments: It was Ryan Braun’s initial PED dishonesty that extended his suspension. It was the Astros initially standing by executive Brandon Taubman’s lies about what he said in the clubhouse toward three female reporters that led to Taubman’s lifetime ban and more punishment looming for the organization. Former Braves GM John Coppolella would have received a suspension for malfeasance for his rule-breaking in Latin America; he was hit with a lifetime ban for consistently, in MLB’s view, misleading investigators.

At the moment, MLB appears more interested in just how coordinated the Astros’ alleged cheating efforts were and how high up they went. A player who benefitted from it is unlikely to receive much of a punishment, if any. The difference would be if Beltran was central to devising the system, as sources claimed in that Athletic report, and that he is a manager now, not a retired player from the 2017 Astros like, say, Brian McCann. Keep in mind an employee of a team must agree to be interviewed by MLB investigators while a retired player such as McCann, unemployed from any team, does not have to agree to an interview. So, Beltran will definitely be put on the record by MLB investigators.

What could mitigate any penalty is that MLB is likely to view cheating pre-2019 less harsh because it was not until March 2019 that the league sent a memo to all clubs detailing a firm policy with a promise of severe penalties — including potential suspensions — for anyone caught using electronic equipment to break the rules. All GMs and managers had to sign an oath after this season that they did not cheat.

However, there is an earlier defining point that could hurt Beltran. On Sept. 15, 2017, in conjunction with fining the Red Sox for using Apple Watches to steal Yankees signals, commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement that “Future violations of this type will be subject to more serious sanctions.” And the Yankees, for one team, believed that the Astros were illegally picking up signs at Minute Maid Park during the 2017 ALCS — so after that statement.

Maybe that is sour grapes. But the focus — for now — of this investigation is the Astros, who are loathed throughout the sport. Rivals have been looking for ways to get at this team, and particularly GM Jeff Luhnow, so the drip, drip, drip of charges and allegations are going to continue. So, whoever told The Athletic of Beltran’s integral involvement in the cheating very possibly will tell the same to MLB. Do the Mets want to risk the water torture of those drips hitting them without fully knowing what they are dealing with sooner than later?

Thus, a conversation between Beltran and those who just hired him needs to be had to see if his story differs privately with them as opposed to publicly with reporters. Beltran has linked the Mets to a potential scandal not of their doing, but very much now in their backyard. They must proactively move to avoid contamination.