The line is blurry, but Jorge Lopez crossed it.
Players routinely take out their frustrations on equipment and objects, whether it’s firing a helmet to the ground in disgust or assaulting the water cooler, but throwing a glove into the stands in anger is deemed next-level.
Lopez became a former Mets reliever Thursday when he was designated for assignment by the club a day after an on-field meltdown. The right-hander was ejected by third base umpire Ramon De Jesus after complaining about the call on a check swing by Freddie Freeman. Upon leaving the field, Lopez threw his glove over the protective netting behind the first-base dugout.
Manager Carlos Mendoza called the act “unacceptable.” Lopez’s bad day was compounded by comments he issued at his locker that were initially construed as the pitcher saying the Mets were the worst “team” in the major leagues.
Lopez, whose first language is Spanish — he conducted the interview in English — likely said “worst teammate” (in reference to himself) as he attempted to clarify on Instagram on Thursday.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt there, but the initial act of throwing his glove into the stands (and subsequent refusal to acknowledge his mistake) was enough to end his Mets career.
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“You’ve got to get rid of him,” a former player told Sports+. “You can’t have that. It’s quit.”
The circumstances didn’t help Lopez’s cause. This infraction occurred amid a horrid stretch for the Mets, and Lopez, while pitching respectably, was hardly an irreplaceable piece. It became the perfect storm into which Lopez was swept.
If the Mets didn’t act, the perception might have grown that Mendoza, a rookie manager, had lost control of the club.
“It’s totally unprofessional,” a second former major league player said of Lopez throwing his glove into the stands. “It’s one thing to flip it into the stands, ‘Here, kid, have my glove, you can probably do better than I could,’ but to fire it 30 feet in the air over a net … you’ve just been ejected and totally embarrassed yourself and the organization.
“Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he said, ‘I’m the worst teammate,’ which I will if there’s a language issue, but I can’t excuse the on-field behavior. If you’re going to have standards for the organization and the manager not giving the appearance he’s lost the team, then you have to do something.”
Appearances matter. The Mets were in a similar predicament in 2021 when Javier Baez and Francisco Lindor were among the players giving thumbs-down signals to the fans as a form of retaliation for booing.
It calls into question team leadership and culture. There are various Mets with leadership qualities — Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso among them — but is there a true leader in the group?
Lopez, as a veteran player, should have known better. The Mets have enough ongoing performance issues with which to deal.
Professional behavior by the players should be a given.
No defense
If there was an area in which the Mets seemed to improve with their offseason acquisitions, it was on defense.
Players such as Harrison Bader, Tyrone Taylor and Joey Wendle arrived largely to bolster the run-prevention category.
But through Wednesday, the Mets were sitting last in the major leagues in defensive runs saved at minus-32, according to Fielding Bible. The Mets were 25th in MLB last year with a minus-28 DRS.
Center field (+1) was the only position at which the Mets had a positive DRS value (and that speaks highly of Bader’s performance at the position).
The worst spot was catcher (-8) — where Tomas Nido and Omar Narvaez have been entrenched with Francisco Alvarez on the injured list for the past five weeks.
Maybe the biggest disappointment has been Pete Alonso’s regression at first base. Alonso was plus-6 in DRS last season, but has slipped to minus-4 this year.
As much as Brett Baty has improved at third base, he’s still minus-1 in DRS.
Does Alvarez need to dial it back?
Alvarez began a minor league rehab assignment Thursday night — he blasted an opposite-field home run in his second plate appearance — as he continues to make his way back from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb.
A scout who watched Alvarez earlier in the season noted how hard the second-year catcher was playing the game. Over the marathon of a long season, though, that could be more detrimental to a catcher than beneficial.
“He was just running out every ground ball as hard as he could, even the routine outs, and just grinding on offense and defense every play,” the scout said. “I know he’s a high-energy kid, and that’s great, but as a catcher, you’ve got to really manage your energy level. I just remember saying this guy was going to be out of bullets by the All-Star break if he keeps this up.
“I’m not saying you need to be lazy, but the catching position is so demanding physically and mentally that you really have to manage your energy and your effort level. On ground ball outs he should be giving 80 percent to give the appearance he’s running hard, but to me, it looked like he was going to have a hard time getting through a whole season healthy. And I know you can’t do anything about tearing a ligament in your thumb, but that’s something he’s going to have to pay attention to as he gets older.”
Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
One who got away
Don’t look now, but with one-third of the season complete, Seth Lugo might be the front-runner for the American League Cy Young award.
The former Mets pitcher is 9-1 with a 1.72 ERA for the Royals and first among MLB pitchers with 3.3 bWAR.
In this era defined by the no-decision for a starting pitcher, Lugo is on pace for 27 wins. The last pitcher to win more than 22 games in a season was Curt Schilling for the Diamondbacks in 2002.
Lugo was a dependable bullpen piece for the Mets who never received a shot as a full-time starter in part because of concern about the partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Lugo also struggled as a starter in 2017, and that seemed to be held against him as he pursued a return to the rotation.
He’s become a very good one that got away from the Mets.
