According to Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Beltran has committed plagiarism.

The evidence was published in an interview on MLB.com; following are the most important quotes.

First, the lawbreaker’s comment…

“To Jimmy Rollins: We are the team to beat,” Carlos Beltran said.

Next, the response …

“Two things come to mind,” Jimmy Rollins said. “One, there are four other teams in our division who are going to make sure that doesn’t happen, and two, has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?

There it is folks … Carlos Beltran, guilty as charged.

From Merriam-Webster, the definition of plagiarizing:

: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Wow … it’s pretty clear that Beltran stole Rollins’ words, though he might be able to prove he gave Rollins credit. It’s not fair, really, since Beltran is from Puerto Rico, where plagiarizing is legal as well as part of their culture. Luckily the Mets have a large team of high-powered attorneys on retainer, who can probably keep Beltran from serving his sentence until after the season. My guess is they’ll start with a change of venue to hold up the conviction.

Interestingly, Jimmy Rollins also said this in the MLB.com interview:

“The pressure is back on them,” Rollins said. “They were on paper the best team in the division last year and supposed to win and didn’t.”

Strange … the Phillies were ‘the team to beat’ last year, yet Rollins also says the Mets were the best team.