"I love it," Matheny said during his media session at the Winter Warm-Up. "I'm challenging these guys all the time, 'What is that you want to do? What's the player you want to be? And get a real good idea of what that looks like and then help us try to figure out how to help you.'

"Try to put those goals and aspirations together and realize that we're going put this puzzle together the best that we can. But if we know that is something you believe you can do for this team to help us, how would we not be better? These guys are so highly motivated, so highly talented, how can we better utilize what they bring to the table.

"And then they're able to go and make radical transformations to the way they go about their game. I think Carp is a great example of that, a guy who redefined himself as a hitter last year and the kind of guy that I think is serving as a great example for how our players can make those adjustments depending to what the need of the team is. We have some very selfless players that are willing to do what they need to do.

"For me to hear that from Kolten is just kind of him looking at the landscape of our club and thinking how can I jump into this and help us more. He thinks being at the top of the order could allow us freedom to do other things. I'm excited to watch what he does. So now we go and compete."