Carlos Beltran says Texas is ‘more about baseball’ than New York – CBSSports.com

We’re just over two weeks removed from the deadline-day trade that sent Carlos Beltran from the Yankees to the Rangers. In the time since, he’s adjusted to his new surroundings, hitting .315/.351/.500 with two home runs.

Beltran has taken a liking to his new haunt in other ways, too — like preferring the vibes in Texas to those in New York. Here’s what he told KESN-FM about the difference between his most-recent employers, per the Dallas Morning News:

But at the end of the day, [in] New York there’s a lot of distractions, a lot of things going on more than baseball. Here it’s more about baseball.

That’s not a surprising answer. Beltran has every reason to prefer playing in Texas — in part because, you know, the Rangers are the team paying him (okay, so technically the Yankees are paying for half his salary, too). Besides, Beltran had to deal with multiple going-away tours in New York without the benefit of a deep postseason run. He’s still very much on his honeymoon with the Rangers, meaning he hasn’t had time for the negatives to make themselves apparent.

The more interesting aspect of Beltran’s comments is when he says Rangers skipper Jeff Banister is more laid back than Yankees manager Joe Girardi. Beltran adds that Girardi has more going on, which, again, is a fair assessment.

Still, Beltran’s comments are almost certain to cause some kind of stir in New York.