Adrian Beltré hadn’t sought an audience with a general manager very often in his career to that point, but when the Hall of Famer joined the Texas Rangers, the promise from Jon Daniels was to build a competitive team around Beltré.

Beltré understood there might be better players than the 30-year-old rookie catcher, at least when it came to production on the field. To that point, Robinson Chirinos had played 33 major league games, and he had seven RBIs to his name. But, ahead of the 2014 season, Beltré did what he had yet to do because he felt strongly about what Chirinos could bring to Texas.

“I had to be really certain about the player and person for me to come out and vouch for that player,” Beltré said. “And, at that time, I didn’t think twice to recommend him staying on the team.”

Beltré went to Daniels, the general manager, and advocated for Chirinos. Not because the Rangers needed his thump — although Chirinos produced a .705 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 93 games that year — but because Beltré and teammate Elvis Andrus understood the value Chirinos would bring everywhere else.

That is, Chirinos was a coach long before anyone gave him that official title.

“He led us daily, even the first year he was with us,” Andrus said. “We always joked around, ‘You’re a player, not a coach. Chill out. Just act like a player, not like a coach.’ But it’s always been in him.”

It came as no surprise to Beltré and Andrus this offseason when they received a phone call from Chirinos, telling them he was joining the Orioles to be their bench coach. The pair of longtime friends and teammates have told Chirinos for years that this was in his future.

They admired his work ethic, his communication skills and his respectful vocalness. They saw a good player, one who reached the 10-year service time milestone, but they also saw a future coach who would impact the Rangers’ clubhouse while still a player — developing the sort of relationships and habits that would translate to coaching.

Now 40, Chirinos is adapting to a life for which he has long seemed destined.

“I love this game so much. I knew at some point I was going to get back to the game,” Chirinos said. “Back in 2017, that was the first time it got thrown to me that maybe I can be a coach someday. And that always stuck in my mind, to have the opportunity to give back to the game and players.”

What Beltré and Andrus saw throughout their time with Chirinos in Texas, the Orioles saw in 2022. At 38, that was Chirinos’ final year in the major leagues, and his presence was orchestrated for more than his .179 average.

Adley Rutschman, the game’s top prospect and the future of a rebuilding Orioles team, was scheduled to arrive in the majors that season. And, once he did, Chirinos became an immediate sounding board. On his first day, Rutschman remembers the quiet word from Chirinos that set the stage for their relationship.

“He said, ‘Hey, I’m here if you need anything,’ ” Rutschman said. There was a swirl of activity around Rutschman on May 21, 2022. It was all so much to take in — and the rest of that season didn’t let up.

“You can lean on me,” Rutschman recalled Chirinos saying. “Having that presence around, he was a person I could talk to at any point, and he’s gonna be nonjudgmental, and his words carried a lot of weight for me. … He was the best guy you could basically ask for in helping me navigate the season.”

Even before Chirinos had years of service time, other players listened to him. Beltré and Andrus urged him to speak up early in his time in Texas. Leadership, Andrus said, is earned. For some, that comes through experience. For others, it is earned through actions.

And Chirinos’ actions earned respect. He arrived early every day to begin prep work for his pitchers. He stayed late to study game film. Still, Chirinos was reluctant at first to speak out, even when young pitchers shook off his calls during games.

“I’d be like, ‘Man, you’re here for like seven hours, you do your homework and they’re shaking on you?’ ” Andrus said. “I told him, ‘You have to be vocal, man, and let them know that, if you guys continue to shake, I’m going to come a little later and enjoy my family at home.’ ”

Those pitchers quickly fell in line, trusting Chirinos’ preparation and the way he respectfully communicated ideas.

“We had a lot of veterans on our team, but I remember telling him, ‘Dude, talk. If somebody says something, we’ve got you. Me and Adrian, we’ve got your back. That’s all you need. You can go off,’ ” Andrus said.

Not that he ever went off, really. When Beltré called on Chirinos during meetings, he did so because of the “savvy, smart answer to whatever situation we were talking about.”

Chirinos honed that skill as his career continued, and by the time he was in Baltimore, he was more than a mentor to Rutschman. He held active roles in hitters and pitchers meetings, and manager Brandon Hyde said Chirinos was “almost a player-coach in a lot of ways.”

The league viewed him that way, too. In the offseason ahead of the 2021 season, Chirinos said, he received two offers to play another season. He received five offers from teams to join coaching staffs. He knew that was the next step for him, but it wasn’t until this season that he officially broke into the MLB coaching ranks.

As a bench coach, Chirinos is on the path toward becoming a manager. Andrus noted how he also played with catcher Stephen Vogt, the Cleveland Guardians manager, and Andrus sees similarities between the two in how they communicate and care.

“He’s so happy when his teammate does something. It’s something you can’t fake,” Beltré said. “Elvis and I had a conversation about how great he’d be as a coach, because he’s smart, he knows the game, he analyzes things, he has patience. He cares about the people, so you could tell, from my opinion, he had everything back then.”

They weren’t wrong.

On Sunday, Chirinos served as Baltimore’s acting manager because Hyde was ejected. It was only for a few innings, but it was the first time Chirinos was at the head of a team’s decision-making.

That appears to be Chirinos’ future, even if it’s not in Baltimore. This winter, when Beltré and Andrus hung with Chirinos, the new bench coach admitted that someday he’d like to manage. There’s little doubt in Andrus’ mind the chance will come.

But, when Chirinos said his first calls would be to Beltré and Andrus to serve as coaches, the pair of former teammates exchanged a look.

“We were like, ‘Robinson, we love you to death, dude, but that ain’t gonna happen,’ ” Andrus said, laughing.

Some players are meant to become managers. In Chirinos’ case, there has never been any doubt.