“It’s not my body, so I don’t know exactly what he’s feeling. I also don’t know what he’s telling other people that he’s feeling,” Wright said Monday afternoon at a press conference at the Anaheim Marriott, as Reyes sat at an adjacent table, conducting his own interviews. “But if there’s any chance that he could do any more damage to himself, or if there’s a chance maybe it’s not best for the team for him to be out there, I think ultimately somebody needs to say something and avoid him hurting himself, because he’s going to want to be out there to play and he’s going to want to be out there trying to do things that maybe he shouldn’t.”

Had Wright not intervened, would anyone else have? Wright indicated over the weekend he didn’t know the answer. It’s certainly debatable.

– Adam Rubin, ESPN New York.

Everyone’s asking the same questions. I brought them up Saturday after the game. Howard Megdal wondered about them yesterday on SNY.tv. Andy Martino did the same in this morning’s Daily News.

Why did David Wright have to be the person to stop Jose Reyes from playing through pain and risking further injury? Where was the manager, the general manager, the medical staff? Did no one learn anything from last year?

It’s absurd. Surreal even.

And look: Hopefully all goes well and Reyes heals with a few days off and this whole thing becomes just a weird little hiccup in an otherwise positive season. But it’s baffling nonetheless. What happened to Prevention and Recovery? Did the Mets somehow think that since Angel Pagan healed reasonably quickly from his oblique strain, Reyes would necessarily do the same? Reyes never denied that he was in pain. Obviously he wants to play through it; he’s a professional athlete, that’s how he’s wired.

Ugh. Whatever. Whatever, whatever.

The only upside to this is it again demonstrates how lucky we are, as Mets fans, to have David Wright around.

I have, in the past, accused Wright of being a crowd-pleaser and a cliche machine, but the more I hear him talk the less I think that’s the case. I think maybe he just gets it. He’s the guy who said, “we’re healthy,” when asked about the changes in the clubhouse this year and who straight-up dismissed Omar Minaya’s comments about the team’s lack of edge last year.

Wright’s comments about Reyes yesterday actually read a little like a column I wrote about Reyes’ injuries back in October: No one can understand anyone else’s pain and it shouldn’t be the responsibility of players to diagnose their own injuries.

David Wright has already produced several wins for the Mets this year with his bat and glove. And he appears to be the only person in the organization concerned with securing more wins in the future. What a stud.

Jose Reyes said David Wright knows him better than anyone else on the team. Wright saw Reyes wince while throwing, and called Jerry Manuel out to remove Reyes from the game. According to Reyes, Wright stressed how important it was to the team for Reyes to be fully healthy for the second half. Reyes maintains that he didn’t further injure his strained oblique by playing today or this week, but said that Wright expressed concern that he might.

The good news is that David Wright is around and vigilant. The bad news is that Reyes is visibly hurt but somehow it’s up to the Mets’ third baseman to keep him out of games.

Jerry Manuel said that Reyes would be sent to the All-Star Game “with a note,” which really made it sound like it’d be pinned to Jose’s shirt by the kindergarten teacher. Adam Rubin has since Tweeted that Reyes will be out of the All-Star Game entirely, but I didn’t hear that part.

Angel Pagan has a “Retire 21” sticker in his locker. He also has an .832 OPS on the season. Jeff Francoeur is at .694.

Ruben Tejada changed lockers and is now in the spot where Ryota Igarashi used to be. Tejada’s old locker is mostly empty except a few jerseys, a couple of gloves, and a label on top that says “BELTRAN 15.” This makes me unreasonably excited. I’m pretty sure it’s the same locker Beltran had last year, for whatever it’s worth.

I wonder if Igarashi’s translator went with him to St. Lucie. I assume he did.

However, Reyes added a new twist by telling Viloria that while he would prefer to stay at short, he “hasn’t ruled out” changing positions. More specifically, Reyes mentions that “I played several games at second base for the Mets,” referring to the 43 games he logged at the keystone in 2004.

Reyes’ preferences aside, there is an argument to be made for bumping the 27-year-old one slot to the right. First of all, one of the team’s top position prospects (along with Fernando Martinez and others) is 18-year-old shortstop Wilmer Flores, who has been showing promise at the lower levels of the Mets system—though some see his future outside of the infield. In any event, once the Mets are free of their commitment to Luis Castillo at the end of 2011 (or sooner by trade), there is no ready replacement within the upper levels of the system save Ruben Tejada, a natural shortstop like Reyes but without his speed or offensive ceiling.

– Nick Collias, MLBTradeRumos.com.

No disrespect to Collias, but there really isn’t any argument for it at all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that Reyes is willing to do whatever the team asks. But there’s just no reason the team should ask him to switch positions as long as he’s an above-average defensive shortstop.

I just don’t understand the logic here, even a little bit. Am I missing something?