Beltre jokes with Jon Daniels: ‘I am going to play for the Dodgers.’

At one point the night of Nov. 19, Jon Daniels was left speechless.

And Adrian Beltre let Daniels linger. Or maybe suffer is more appropriate.

Beltre was calling to say he had decided to retire from baseball, but that’s not how he initially framed his call to Daniels, the Texas Rangers general manager.

“Adrian is pretty direct. He doesn’t mince words,” Daniels said Friday at the going-away news conference for Beltre.

“I got the sense from the phone call it was a little more solemn. He started off, said, ‘Hey, this is a tough decision for me. I have decided to play. He said, ‘I got an offer from the Dodgers, and I am going to play for the Dodgers.’”

Daniels admitted that he wasn’t sure what was happening. After all, Beltre started his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who played in the past two World Series, and lives fairly close to Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t know how I responded, if it was awkward silence or I stumbled over my words,” Daniels said. “He started laughing and said, ‘I’m just kidding, I am really going to retire.’ ”

Beltre explained himself thusly.

“I just didn’t want to come straight out and tell him,” Beltre said. “I’m pretty direct, but I thought it would be funny. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to do it longer, but I couldn’t do it. I think there was silence for two minutes, and then I started laughing.”

From there, things moved quickly. It was around 10 p.m. CST when Beltre first notified Daniels, who then notified PR man John Blake. Beltre and Blake discussed the statement that Beltre wanted to use to announced his decision, and around midnight Beltre instructed Blake to announce it at 9 a.m. the next morning.

But only after a really good laugh.

“I thought that was appropriate that a guy who loves to play the game have a little fun at our expense come decision time,” Daniels said. “There is an element of sadness for us and our fans, just because that piece of it is coming to an end, just to have fun and watch him on the field every day how he played the game. There is also a real sense of pride and I think we are all humbled that he has chosen to retire as a Texas Ranger.”

This story was originally published November 30, 2018 at 2:43 PM.