NEW YORK — Javier Baez and Francisco Lindor have apologized to Mets fans after Baez revealed that a thumbs-down celebration gesture adopted by players was in part a dig at New York fans who have booed the underperforming ballclub.
Baez and Lindor took turns saying they were sorry less than an hour before first pitch of a game Tuesday against the Miami Marlins. That followed a stern statement from team president Sandy Alderson on Sunday night disavowing the gesture, as well as a team meeting Tuesday in which players said they would stop making it.
“I didn’t mean to offend anybody,” Baez said.
Lindor added, “It doesn’t look good on our part.”
Hours after the apology, Baez was booed loudly by fans when he pinch hit in the eighth inning. Fans in a sparse crowd stood and turned down their thumbs while he batted, jeering him until he was hit by a 2-2 pitch on the shin and walked to first.
Lindor also was booed before his first at-bat and again after laying down a successful sacrifice bunt in the resumption of a game postponed by rain in the first inning on April 11.
The 28-year-old Baez was acquired from the Chicago Cubs on July 30 and has hit .210 with four homers and a .709 OPS in 17 games since. Mets fans booed him and others throughout August, when the team has gone 8-19 to fall out of playoff position after leading the NL East for nearly three months.
Players began making the thumbs-down gesture toward their dugout after base hits and other positive plays while at Dodger Stadium from Aug. 20-22.
“When we don’t get success, we’re going to get booed,” Baez explained Sunday. “So they’re going to get booed when we have success.”
Lindor and Manager Luis Rojas said Tuesday they believe Baez – whose first language is Spanish but doesn’t use an interpreter when speaking to media – misspoke when he said Mets players were booing the fans.
“I didn’t say the fans are bad, I love the fans, but like, I just felt like we were alone,” Baez said Tuesday. “The fans obviously want to win, and they pay our salary like everybody says, but like, we want to win, too, and the frustration got to us. And, you know, I didn’t mean to offend anybody, and if I offend anybody, we apologize.”
Lindor also said the gesture was not explicitly about fans.
“Thumbs down for me means adversity, the adversity we have gone through in this whole time,” Lindor said. “Like the negative things, we overcome it, so it’s like, `We did it! We went over it!’
“However, it was wrong, and I apologize to whoever I offended. It was not my intent to offend people.”
Baez and Lindor spoke to reporters in front of the Mets’ dugout. Lindor was booed by a few fans when he emerged, and two young boys held up thumbs-down signals behind him while he spoke. After Baez concluded his apology, one fan shouted to him “Javy, we just want to win, bro!”
“Glad to hear our players apologizing to the fans,” first-year owner Steve Cohen said on Twitter. “Let’s get behind our players today and go out and win 2 today!”
The Mets aren’t the only club taking exception to home-cooked ridicule. Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco complained last week about booing from fans in Pittsburgh a couple of days before being released by the team.
“They have to understand that I’m a human being, too,” he said.
Of course, New York is its own beast. Players and coaches expect that underperforming stars in the Big Apple will hear about it from fans.
“Here, I have a lot of respect,” Lindor said. “People are very honest and they let you know.”
Mets fan Will Gregory, 15, said before the game that he wished Baez handled the boos with as much grace as Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton. Gregory – standing with friends near the players’ entrance seeking autographs – said he respected Stanton for acknowledging the fans’ right to boo.
“He took it a lot differently, saying that, `We need to be better,”‘ Gregory said. “But you know, we’re New Yorkers, and that’s how (Baez) is going to be received if he plays bad. So, if he doesn’t want to get booed, he should just play better.”
The entire team – not just Baez and Lindor – was using the gesture, and Rojas said the players had decided to stop before he addressed the club Tuesday.
Outfielder Kevin Pillar – also in his first season with the team – tweeted Sunday that he’s “felt nothing but love in NYC” and that “No I’m not booing the fans.”
“Please don’t look (too) much into this,” he wrote.
“Media always searching for anything to cause controversy,” replied pitcher Marcus Stroman. “Stop playing into these narratives.”
Rojas said he didn’t know the meaning of the thumbs-down gesture until Baez’s comments Sunday.
“We’re being accountable for some of those decisions and that’s what I see in this group,” the manager said. “This is a group of guys that I think is accountable for their actions.
“We have leaders in there that have explained how the media, the fans, everything is here,” he added. “And myself, I have always told the guys how accountable we’ve got to be.”
A four-time All-Star, Lindor was acquired from Cleveland over the offseason in the first major move for the team since Cohen purchased the franchise. Lindor signed a $341 million, 10-year deal to remain in New York, but he has been jeered often during a season in which he is hitting .224 with 11 homers and a .686 OPS.
He was hopeful the gesture wouldn’t spoil his relationship with the fan base he is committed to through 2031.
“I hope this doesn’t stick around because it wasn’t meant to offend anybody, to disrespect nobody,” he said. “This is just a time of trying to pick each other up. We’re going through a rough time, and it was a gesture to pick each other up.”
BLUE JAYS: The Toronto Blue Jays have cut struggling lefty reliever Brad Hand.
Hand was reinstated from the bereavement list and designated for assignment before Tuesday’s game against Baltimore. Hand went 0-2 with a 7.27 ERA in 11 games with Toronto after being acquired from Washington on July 29 in exchange for rookie catcher Riley Adams.
Hand last pitched in an Aug. 26 loss to the White Sox, allowing two runs and three hits in 2/3 of an inning. He was placed on the bereavement list July 27.
Hand went 5-5 with a 3.79 ERA and 21 saves in 41 appearances for Washington before the trade. He’s 43-31 with 126 saves and a 3.70 ERA over 11 big league seasons.
The Blue Jays also activated catcher Danny Janssen off the injured list and optioned right-hander Trent Thornton to Triple-A Buffalo.
Janssen went on the injured list July 23 because of a strained right hamstring. He started at catcher against Baltimore.
RAYS: The Tampa Bay Rays added veteran reliever David Robertson to their taxi squad and are expected to recall him from Triple-A Durham on Wednesday.
The Rays signed the 36-year-old on Aug. 16 after Robertson was part of the silver medal-winning United States team at the Tokyo Olympics.
Robertson last pitched in the majors on April 14, 2019 with Philadelphia. He had Tommy John surgery in August of that year and had a setback a year later.
ASTROS: The Houston Astros placed starting pitcher Zack Greinke and first baseman Taylor Jones on the injured list, citing health and safety protocols.
Manager Dusty Baker said he couldn’t give specifics, but the designation is a sign the players have tested positive for or come in contact with someone who has COVID-19.
Baker said Greinke will miss his next start. The right hander is 11-5 in 27 starts this season with a 3.66 ERA and 110 strikeouts.
The Astros recalled infielder Robel Garcia and right-hander Josh James from the taxi squad .
Baker said the team had planned to go to a six-man rotation when right-hander Jose Urquidy (right shoulder) returns from the injury list when rosters expand.
Now they’ll probably stay with a five-man rotation, he said, until Greinke returns.
YANKEES: Reliever Zack Britton has decided his season is over after a meeting with Dr. Neal ElAttrache earlier this week.
“I’ve decided I’m going to have surgery on September 8. I definitely have a bone chip in there that needs to come out, pretty similar to what I had in March,” Britton said on Tuesday. “He’s going to take a look at my UCL, it’ll be kind of up to him to see what he needs to do with the surgery. When I wake up, we’ll determine the next step.”
The lefty reliever also clarified that just because Dr. ElAttrache will look at his UCL, that doesn’t mean he’s destined for every pitcher’s most feared operation.
“Tommy John’s not the only thing they do nowadays with the UCL,” Britton cautioned. “There’s other options. I think we’re all hopeful it’s not severe. Basically the biggest issue is the bone chip. That’s been causing the issue, not the UCL.”
“I’m hopeful that it’s not something long term that has to take 12-16 months,” Manager Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully he can start his rehab this winter and be on the mound sometime early next year.”
The Yankees signed Britton to a three-year, $39 million contract prior to the 2019 season. He also opted into a $14 million player option for the 2022 season, meaning Britton is under contract for next season as well. He has a 2.69 ERA in 123.2 innings with the Yankees, only 18.1 of which came in 2021.
He threw more innings during the 60-game season in 2020 than he did over the full 2021 season, as he also underwent surgery before the season to remove a bone spur from the same elbow and did not get into a game with the Yankees until June 12.
TUESDAY’S GAMES
METS SWEEP MARLINS: Michael Conforto delivered a two-out hit that sent Javier Baez bolting home to cap a five-run rally in the ninth inning, then homered to lift the New York Mets over the visiting Miami Marlins 3-1 for their second victory of the day.
In the afternoon opener – which was the completion of a nine-inning game suspended one out into the top of the first on April 11 – Conforto’s single scored the tying run and Baez, too.
Baez earned cheers from a fanbase he insulted days earlier by sprinting home when left fielder Jorge Alfaro misplayed the ball to cap a five-run inning and give the Mets a 6-5 win.
The Marlins-Mets game scheduled for Wednesday night at Citi Field was postponed a day in advance because of expected heavy rain. It will be made up as part of a straight doubleheader on Sept. 28 starting at 4:10 p.m.
ATHLETICS 9, TIGERS 3: Matt Chapman hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in the third inning and cleared the fences again in the ninth, helping Oakland win at Detroit.
Mark Canha homered as Oakland won its third straight after losing six in a row and moved one game behind the Red Sox for the last wild-card spot. The Tigers have lost four consecutive games, scoring a total of eight runs in those setbacks.
ORIOLES 4, JAYS 2: Keegan Akin allowed one run through five innings and won consecutive starts for the first time, Ramon Urias hit a go-ahead double in the sixth inning and Baltimore won at Toronto.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Danny Jansen hit solo home runs for the Blue Jays, who had their three-game win streak snapped.
PHILLIES 12, NATIONALS 6: Bryce Harper hit a go-ahead single against his former team as part of a six-run sixth inning, Rafael Marchan, Andrew McCutchen and Brad Miller hit two-run homers, and visiting Philadelphia won its fifth straight.
The Phillies, who have scored at least seven runs in six consecutive games for the first time since June 1933, moved within 2 games of idle Cincinnati for the race for the NL’s second wild card. Philadelphia improved to 8-1 at Nationals Park this season.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
