The New York Mets aren’t doing themselves any favors.
As the Mets have plummeted in the NL East standings, they’re 8-19 in the month of August, the fans of New York have done what passionate fans do — they’ve booed the lackluster performance of their team.
Well, a few of the Mets want you to know they don’t appreciate it, and they’ve come up with a fun way of showing it.
During the Mets 9-4 win over the Washington Nationals — just their fourth win in 16 games — trade deadline acquisition Javier Baez started a new celebration trend. Baez, along with Kevin Pillar and Francisco Lindor, put their “thumbs-down” in a message to the Mets’ faithful.
“Just the boos that we get,” Baez said about the meaning behind the thumbs-down gesture. “We’re not machines, we’re going to struggle. We’re going to struggle seven times out of ten. It just feels bad when I strike out and I get booed, it doesn’t really get to me, but I want to let them know that we’re going to do the same thing to let them know how it feels.”
“If we win together, then we’re going to lose together and the fans are a really big part of it. In my case, they gotta be better. I play for the fans and I love the fans, but if they’re going to do that, they’re just putting more pressure on the team and that’s not what we want.”
Baez is hitting .210 with 22 strikeouts to just 13 hits in his short time with the Mets.
Not surprisingly, team president Sandy Alderson had strong words for those players who participated in the new gesture.
“These comments, and any gestures by [Baez] or other players with similar intent, are totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Alderson said, adding that he will be meeting with players and staff to convey the message directly. “Mets fans are understandably frustrated over the team’s recent performance. The players and the organization are equally frustrated, but fans at Citi Field have every right to express their own disappointment. Booing is every fan’s right.”
Mets manager Luis Rojas said that Baez is going to have to adjust to the boos, as the fanbase is not one for holding back.
“I haven’t had many conversations with Javy about that, everything’s been about the game,” Rojas said. “Getting to know Javy more and more every day, he’s an outstanding kid to be around. Javy being a new guy here, getting to know our fanbase. Some of the reaction that our fanbase has, you see it’s something he’s learning. Our fans are like that, our fans are very passionate. They’re going to demand the best out of everyone here — players, managers. We understand where it’s coming from, it’s always been like that. They demand the best, they demand wins. We just gotta keep working to deliver it to them and be our best.”
“I think it’s something he’s probably getting used to, it’s the first time he’s had another uniform. He’s seen some of these things in his time here, probably that’s why he’s sharing, he’s venting. It’s a learning experience. There’s different guys that have probably felt that way coming into here and not performing immediately. They learn how to deal with it and they know where the fanbase is coming from.”
This isn’t the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. New York sports fans will let you know when you’re letting them down. Yankees fans once booed Derek Jeter when he was in the middle of a terrible slump at the plate. Do you know how Jeter responded? By saying, “I would boo myself too.”
If Jeter can let the boos slide off his back, Baez certainly can as he barely stays above the Mendoza Line in his 17 games in New York.
The Mets are going nowhere and their fans don’t appreciate it. They have the third-highest payroll in MLB — $198,063,083 — and they sit 7.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, seven back in the Wild Card. The Mets offense is 26th out of 30 teams in home runs, 24th in batting average, and 29th in runs scored. If you had to go watch an offense that poor, you’d boo too.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.