David Wright has been fairly quiet behind the scenes in his role as a special advisor with the Mets, but he was on hand Monday in San Diego for the start of the MLB Winter Meetings.
Among the topics that Wright discussed was the hiring of his former teammate Carlos Baltran as the team's new manager.
According to Wright, Beltran's outstanding baseball IQ sets him up very well for his new position.
"Probably one of the smartest baseball men that I have been around," Wright said in San Diego. "His baseball IQ is off the charts. And I think in the latter part of his career he almost became like a player-coach on the field, so I am excited about what he can share with the younger players, certainly because I think every player strives to be a Carlos Beltran type of player, a five-tool guy."
Wright and Beltran, of course, were teammates for Beltran's entire Mets tenure from 2005-2011.
The former Mets captain also spoke to Beltran's leadership qualities, noting how he used to spend as much time as needed after spring training games to talk with younger players.
"That is sometimes overlooked," Wright said. "You don't see a lot of that now. A lot of guys are in a rush to get out of there, but Carlos would pull up a stool and everybody would gather around and kind of just talk baseball, and that is the old-school mentality."
As for Wright's involvement in the Mets' offseason plans, he said that he mainly stays out of personnel decisions, unless of course, the Mets seek his advice.
"If they want my opinion on something I'm readily available to that, but I'm not going to stick my nose into things where as Brodie (Van Wagenen) has a great sense of what he's doing, having been on the job a short period of time.
"He has that kind of player's mindset and that combination of his prior career mixed in with what players like, mixed in with the front office and he's very passionate about it."
