Adam Rubin broke the story moments ago that, following a meeting with manager Terry Collins this morning, Carlos Beltran appears to have accepted a defensive transfer from center field to right to allow Angel Pagan, the superior defender, to play center. Beltran was mum about the situation, but David Wright spoke up about the proposed move.
"Any time you get a guy that's accomplished what Carlos has accomplished, and done the kind of things that Carlos has done in this game, to be that guy that really sees the big picture and sees what's best for this team and does something like that, it makes you want to go out there and really play united and play as a team," third baseman David Wright said.
"That's probably takes a lot coming from a guy that's really accomplished what he's accomplished. Carlos wouldn't have done it if he didn't feel comfortable doing it. I just think it's a very selfless act. Like I said, baseball players have a lot of pride. To be able to kind of swallow that pride and look at what's best for the team and make that decision, says a lot about what Carlos is trying to accomplish here."
You know, this is a typical selfish Beltran move to selflessly change positions like this. Defensively speaking, this is the right move for the team. However, Beltran has no real experience playing right field so to what extent the learning curve might mitigate the added value of having the better fielder in center is unclear.