Adrian Beltre: "I felt I could manage it."

Evan Grant has a post up over at the DMN site in which he talks about how Adrian Beltre wasn't exactly thrilled to go on the DL for the left quad strain. Said Beltre:

I felt I could manage it. But this is a different injury than I’m used to. There was nothing I could say because the decision was already made.

Now, I'm sure there will be those that will assume this is the case of a disgruntled player, but in assuming that, you'd only be about half-right. More than anything, Beltre is a competitor, and with a history of playing through injuries -- like the kind that comes from not wearing a cup -- he wants to be on the field every single game, regardless of the implications on his body.

Last season, Beltre played 161 games while managing a flaky hamstring, and by the end, it was fairly obvious that his body was running on fumes after essentially carrying the offensive load while Nelson Cruz served a 50-game PED suspension. This season, it would seem that the club wants to try to keep the same thing from happening, perhaps realizing that their needs are better served if this isn't a nagging injury that they decide to let Beltre "manage".

Either way, it's fairly evident that Adrian Beltre wants to help the Rangers do well, and I actually respect the hell out of him for being willing to play through injury to that end.