Francisco Lindor

20/20 Hindsight: Rats and Raccoons More Powerful Than Snakes

The New York Mets seemingly have a million different issues thus far, but as we saw in their sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, it is not stopping them from winning games:

1. The biggest issue the Mets have right now is the health of Jacob deGrom. Fortunately, his MRI was clean, and even better, the team is taking a cautious approach by putting him on the IL.

2. The Mets are getting next to nothing from their starting rotation right now, and it is not stopping them from winning games because the bullpen has been phenomenal. There is a lot of credit due to Jeremy Hefner, Jeremy Accardo, and Luis Rojas for not only getting the most out of them, but also for putting them all in positions to succeed.

3. If Edwin Diaz is bailing the Mets out of innings, and he is getting five out saves, this Mets team is going to be completely unstoppable.

4. The Mets are in first place right now without Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Seth Lugo, and Brandon Nimmo. It is high time the narrative on Rojas shifts from over his head to being a good manager. At this pace, he may emerge as a real Manager of the Year candidate.

5. We don’t know what happened between Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor in that tunnel, but we do know it has not stopped them from turning absolutely incredible double plays.

6. The coverage of the “ratcoon” story was all the more puzzling when you consider everything the press looked the other way on when the Wilpons were in control. Apparently harassment of women and interfering with medical decisions didn’t need the serious reporting a fight between teammates warranted.

7. The press feeling insulted by Lindor “lying” to them is tough to take. After all, J.D. Davis lied to their faces about his involvement in the Astros sign stealing scandal, and they didn’t seem to remotely care.

8. At the moment, it seems like Tomas Nido is outplaying James McCann. The problem for any organization is determining whether Nido is superior to McCann or if McCann just needs some additional time to return to his expected form. Many times, it is decisions like these which define a season.

9. The Mets are getting a lot of production out of their bench. As noted, Nido is actually outplaying McCann. We also see Kevin Pillar playing very well in all aspects over the last few weeks. If he can keep this up, he is going to make decisions very difficult for the Mets.

10. If Dominic Smith is going to continue to struggle at the plate and in the field, and Pete Alonso is going to continue to play defense this well, it is going to be very difficult to find Smith playing time. The hope is the firing of Chili Davis could help turn around his season.

11. Once again, Michael Conforto appears to be a very good baseball players, and we are starting to see him pick it up defensively. It just goes to show you not to over rely or overreact to players have slow starts.

12. Jonathan Villar had a golden opportunity to claim himself an everyday job with Davis and Luis Guillorme injured. With his struggles at the plate and seeing him let a pop up fall, he’s cementing himself as a pure bench option.

13. With Villar’s struggles and Albert Almora flat out not hitting, if you look forward, perhaps the Mets could look to bring back old friend Asdrubal Cabrera for bench help for the postseason. Yes, this classifies as getting ahead of ourselves, but we should be embracing the excitement of the moment.

14. David Peterson is certainly making things easy on what the Mets should do when Carrasco and Syndergaard are ready to return from the IL.

15. One of the most bizarre things happening right now is Patrick Mazeika‘s penchant for pinch hit RBI where he doesn’t actually deliver a hit. So far, he has had an extra innings fielder’s choice and a bases loaded walk.

16. One of the biggest shames of the ratcoon fallout is seeing Mazeika not get celebrated for his first career walk off hit.

17. It’s not only funny to see Trevor Bauer up in arms over the Los Angeles Dodgers struggling, but it is downright hilarious he is being outpitched by Taijuan Walker so far this season. And yes, that is happening with Walker having a better ERA+ and FIP than Bauer.

18. For all the problems with the Mets offense, with their pitching, they only need to get to four runs. When that has happened this year, the Mets are 15-2.

19. The Mets do have a negative run differential, but that is partially fueled by their 12 run loss against the Cubs. If you take that game out of the equation, they would have a positive nine run differential, which would be good for sixth in the NL. Put another way, aside from one game, they’ve been in the upper echelon of the NL.

20. The Mets being able to play games has clearly been good for them. They’re getting into a rhythm offensively and defensively. As we see them play more and more games, we can see them get better and better. They’re in first place now, and who knows just how far they will go from here.

Game Recaps

Francisco Lindor and Mets Show Some Fight

The Rat and Raccoon Lead Mets to Victory

Mets Had a Lot of Good Despite Jacob deGrom

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Mets Had A Lot Of Good Despite Jacob deGrom

Look, when Jacob deGrom goes down, that’s the biggest and most important story. However, even with that, there was a lot of good that happened as the Mets won their fifth game in a row.

Michael Conforto made a phenomenal catch in the second, and later in the game, when he and Kevin Pillar collided, neither were injured.

deGrom got another hit and his batting average is .467. That starter a rally where Lindor and Conforto drove home runs.

On that topic, the Mets have seemingly mastered the art of the bases loaded walk. This time, it was Patrick Mazeika. What’s fascinating with Mazeika is he’s delivered two RBI in his young career without getting a hit.

Dominic Smith came through again with a clutch RBI.

Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor continued working their magic in the middle infield. That included two HUGE double plays.

The first helped bail deGrom out of a bases loaded no out jam. A run would score, but that would be it. This would not be the biggest one they turned.

In the eighth, the Mets were on the verge of blowing it. With the bullpen a bit taxed of late, Luis Rojas looked to see if he could get a second inning out of Jacob Barnes.

Right off the jump, it didn’t go well as old friend Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a homer. When Josh Rojas hit a one out double, Rojas asked Edwin Diaz to do something he had done only once before in his career – earn a five out save.

It was made all the more difficult by the rain pouring down hard. That was evident when Diaz plunked Josh VanMeter. Diaz and the Mets were bailed out when McNeil and Lindor turned a huge double play off a David Peralta grounder.

This was a huge moment for Diaz. He usually struggles when brought into games with runners on base, and he’s struggled when asked to get more than three outs. Not today.

That was the case even when his job was made all the more difficult. After striking out the first two batters in the ninth, Nick Ahmed popped up, but Jonathan Villar couldn’t field it.

Over the past two plus years, this is when Diaz tends to fall apart. Instead, he bore down and struck out Daulton Varsho to end the game.

It was a huge save and a big win. The Mets won their fifth straight, and we saw a once maligned Rojas not only setting up his team to perform, but he’s also getting them to go above and beyond. Even with another big injury, things are still looking good.

Game Notes: Players wore pink for Mother’s Day. Diaz’s last five out save was in 2018. Mets are 14-2 this year when they score at least four runs.

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Neon Moment Of The Week: Lindor Emerges

Things had not been good for Francisco Lindor. He had a 0-for-26 stretch, the second worst in his career, and he was getting booed at Citi Field.

You could tell his frustrations were getting to him. There was a miscue and misplay on a ball where Jeff McNeil, and those frustrations boiled over.

The two players headed towards the clubhouse. Soon thereafter, Michael Conforto and Dominic Smith were rushing into the clubhouse themselves.

No one is quite sure as to what exactly happened. Most assumed their was a fight or disagreement. Lindor and McNeil copped to that saying they were debating whether it was a rat or a raccoon they just saw.

Whatever happened, a new Lindor emerged. The player who hadn’t homered at Citi Field and whose last extra base hit was over two weeks ago stepped up to the plate in the seventh inning as the tying run.

Lindor hit a game tying two run homer off of Caleb Smith. From there, the Mets would win in extra innings with Patrick Mazeika getting his first Major League RBI.

That was the Mets third straight win, which just became a four game winning streak. This was the sign of the Mets pulling together and not fracturing when put through all of this stress.

While the postgame focus might’ve been centered around the ratcoon drama, that wasn’t the story. The real story is the Mets are playing good baseball, and Lindor is beginning his annual May breakout, and that’s why it’s the Neon Moment of the Week!

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I am very appreciative Athlete Logos has agreed to participate in this feature. If you like his work as much as I do, please visit his website to enjoy his work, buy some of his merchandise, or to contract him to do some personal work for yourself (like I have).

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The Rat And Raccoon Lead Mets To Victory

One day, you are a struggling baseball team under media scrutiny over a raccoon/rat story. The next, you’re just a good baseball team winning games.

Front and center both times was the Mets middle infield. We saw them both in action in the third inning. First, it was a Jeff McNeil two run homer giving the Mets a 2-0 lead.

Francisco Lindor was up next, and he singled off Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly. He’d then take off for second for a stolen base. After Carson Kelly‘s throw deflected into the outfield, Lindor went all the way around the diamond to score.

That was good enough for the Mets pitching. Over the first five innings, Tommy Hunter (2.0) and Joey Lucchesi (3.0) kept the Diamondbacks hitless. The way things were going the best way for anyone to reach base was by catcher’s interference, which Josh Rojas did in his first two plate appearances.

The Mets got a little greedy pushing Lucchesi to a fourth inning. Rojas would finally swing for the ball instead of James McCann‘s mitt, and he’d single.

He’d go to third on a Christian Walker single, and he’d score on a David Peralta fielder’s choice. At that point, Jeurys Familia came in and bailed him out.

Familia pitched the seventh, and things got very interesting. He’d get two quick outs, but then things went haywire.

Pavin Smith hit a ball against the shift which Lindor couldn’t field cleanly. Kelly blooped one into center. Rojas had a weak hit against the shift which Lindor chased down to prevent Smith from scoring.

Things got all the more dire when Familia fell down 3-0 to Walker, but Familia battled back into the at-bat. Walker then hit it to Lindor who was bailed out by Pete Alonso‘s fancy footwork at first.

In the bottom of that inning, McNeil reached via fielder’s choice. McNeil then stole second and scored on a Lindor RBI single.

The Diamondbacks rallied in the eighth against Aaron Loup.

Old friend Asdrubal Cabrera hit a one out single, and he moved to second on a Nick Ahmed walk. He’d then score on Stephen Vogt pinch hit RBI single. Smith would then ground out to end the jam.

Trevor May came on in the ninth to earn his first save as a Met and the eight of his career. With this 4-2 win, the Mets are now two games over .500, and they’re on the verge of putting together a big run.

Game Notes: Kevin Pillar made two diving catches in center. This was the first time all season Loup allowed an earned run.

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Francisco Lindor Rat/Raccoon Story Genius

There is not one soul on the planet who believes Francisco Lindor‘s explanation about what happened. Really, no one believes there was a dispute between him and Jeff McNeil over whether they saw a rat or a raccoon in the clubhouse.

We know there was some sort of an altercation. Well, we at least expect there’s one. What really happened is only known by the Mets team.

Yes, it’s the job of the reporters to ask questions and get to the bottom of things. However, their reaction was been way over the top. Instead of bemusement, we saw a charge led by Todd Zeile where they were personally insulted.

Of course, they didn’t with Jeff Wilpon when he stood in the way of Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Jed Lowrie, and countless others with their career threatening and altering injuries. The same goes for creating an environment of harassment with Mickey Callaway, other employees, and his own actions. Who knows what other heinous acts went unreported.

That’s partially besides the point. The media gets to cover what they want to cover. Then again, teams and players in turn get to dictate how to respond to inquiries. There are several options including ignoring the questions, boilerplate answers, and as we saw with Lindor, having some fun with it.

And, the Mets did have fun with it. We saw McNeil have fun saying it was a possum. We also saw tweets from players like Marcus Stroman, Dominic Smith, and Tomas Nido.

Instead of the incident between Lindor and McNeil dividing them and the team, we saw it become a moment which brought the team together. We got a sense of that from Stroman.

It’s also something which has galvanized the fanbase. Mets fans are very protective of their players, and they’re all the moreso when they believe their players are being unfairly maligned.

The raccoon is also a fun angle reminiscent of the rally raccoon. For that matter, Mets fans always enjoy a good animal story whether it’s the black cat or Yoenis Cespedes‘ rally parakeet.

Whatever the case, Lindor took what could’ve been a divisive moment, and he made it absurd. From there, the players and fans rallied together. His ability to do that may very well pay dividends now and in the future.

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Francisco Lindor And Mets Show Some Fight

This was the type of game which had the potential to spell doom for the entire New York Mets season. That’s not hyperbole either.

With a bullpen game the other day and another one due tomorrow, David Peterson was bad. He would get knocked out of the second inning after allowing three runs on three hits and three walks.

It would’ve been worse, but Robert Gsellman bailed Peterson out. That said, he did allow a run in the third putting the Mets behind 4-0 with the Diamondbacks pitching Zac Gallen.

Even with Francisco Lindor reaching on an “infield single” and advancing to second on an Asdrubal Cabrera error in the third and scoring on a Michael Conforto single, things were not getting better.

Lindor got booed again even with his making another sterling defensive play.

The Mets did get another run off Gallen in the sixth. Gallen issued a leadoff walk to Pete Alonso, who advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. Jonathan Villar came up huge with an RBI single to cut it to 4-2.

After that, things got weird and dark. It started with a seemingly innocuous play where Jeff McNeil didn’t get out of Lindor’s way on what proved to be a Nick Ahmed single. After what was a scoreless inning, an altercation seemingly ensued:

Conforto and Dominic Smith went down the tunnel. McNeil eventually emerged with what looked like a swollen eye. With Lindor due up, you could see McNeil has swelling around his eye. That wouldn’t be Lindor’s last big hit that inning.

After Tomas Nido, who had been double switched into the game, earned a lead-off walk, Lindor would get his first Citi Field homer:

That homer as well as the Mets bullpen allowing just the one run over the final 8.1 innings and some good defense allowed the Mets to get to that 4-4 tie.

One key play came in the ninth. Edwin Diaz hasn’t been good in tied games or with runners on base. That’s what made Conforto throwing out Cabrera trying to stretch a single to a double all the more important.

Aaron Loup was up next in extra innings. Because of the ever changing rules, a runner started the inning at second. Despite that. Loup would would get out of the inning unscathed. The same wouldn’t be true for the Mets. Smith was intentionally walked to start the inning, and with two outs, Villar singled to load the bases. That set the stage for rookie Patrick Mazeika to get his first career RBI.

That’s a good and uplifting win. It also wasn’t one without drama. Specifically, the issue if the altercation came up. Lindor did his part to downplay it saying he and McNeil were trying to determine if there was a rat or raccoon. It was neither, but it allowed the Mets to move on from it when with all the questions.

Game Notes: Luis Guillorme will not return from the IL tomorrow as anticipated.

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20/20 Hindsight: Mets Not Offensive In Cardinals Split

The New York Mets traveled to St. Louis for a four game set with the Cardinals. How they got there was strange even for Mets standards:

1. Fly Chili Davis out to St. Louis. Fire him after scoring five runs (and losing). The same offensive ineptitude continues.

2. Being fair, it’s going to take more than a series to fix Davis impact. Regardless, the Mets handling of his firing was garbage.

3. At least Francisco Lindor snapped his 0-for-26 streak. His only longer streak was 2018 when he had his best ever offensive season.

4. Even with his struggles, Lindor has walked more than he’s struck out.

5. Speaking of walks, Michael Conforto walked six times in this series. It’s another indication just how much he’s locked in at the plate.

6. Taijuan Walker was completely locked in with the best non Jacob deGrom start of the year.

7. Walker again appears to be the steal of the offseason.

8. It’s way too soon to panic about deGrom. He knows his body, and he opted to be precautious. If he says he’s ready to go again soon, we can trust him.

9. Carlos Carrasco is a bigger issue. The team may not want to call it a setback, but it was.

10. Carrasco is emblematic of a larger issue. The Mets didn’t build sufficient starting pitching depth, and right now, they don’t have a fifth starter. It’s another reason why when with Sean Reid-Foley‘s early season success, the Steven Matz trade made little sense.

11. For some bizarre reason, the Mets have a lot more trust and faith in Joey Lucchesi than Jordan Yamamoto. That’s even with Yamamoto performing better against the Cardinals than Lucchesi.

12. Marcus Stroman is a warrior. He was willing to take the ball on short rest with a hamstring injury, and he performed well in a snakebitten start.

13. It seemed all Kevin Pillar needed to get going was to get some playing time. He’s really stepped up in Brandon Nimmo‘s absence.

14. With Trevor May and Aaron Loup putting their poor first appearances behind them, the Mets bullpen has been unstoppable, and that’s before Seth Lugo returns from injury.

15. Tomas Nido is having a great season. In limited duty, he has hit and framed well. If he keeps this up, he may soon put pressure on James McCann to get some more playing time.

16. In addition to his hitting again, Jeff McNeil has certainly looked very good at second. It’s early but that 3 DRS is a great mark.

17. It’s incredible to think Albert Pujols was released. On that note, and to a lesser extent, the Mets face a similar dilemma with Robinson Cano next year.

18. It’s way too soon to seriously suggest Luis Rojas is on the hot seat. The Mets are fine, and they’ll soon start putting distances between themselves and the rest of the NL East.

19. The state of umpiring is at its worst. We saw it when they had no idea as to the rules about use of an interpreter. By the way, just allow a player to use an interpreter.

20. Not sure how they’re going to handle the vaccinated/non-vaccinated and other issues, but it will be great to see large crowds at games again.

Game Recaps

Mets Front Office Hurts Mets Chances Of Winning

Mets Split Bizarre Doubleheader

Taijuan Walker’s Brilliance Offsets Mets Inept Offense

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Taijuan Walker’s Brilliance Offsets Mets Inept Offense

With the way the New York Mets offense is going, they need brilliant pitching performances to win games. They got that and then some from Taijuan Walker.

If not for Jonathan Villar throwing away a double play ball in the second, there’s no chance the Sr. Louis Cardinals score a run. That unearned run is all the Cardinals would score. In fact, they wouldn’t see another base runner.

The only thing which stopped him was his hitting 92 pitches. Really, nothing else was stopping him. He was that brilliant. Just one hit with no walks while striking out eight.

Put it another way, he had no-hit stuff.

With this being the Mets, it couldn’t be easy. Not this offense. In fact, they’d set a Mets record for futility stranding 17 runners on base.

SEVENTEEN!

The Mets had an opportunity to get that run back in the third, but Gary Disarcina and the Mets offense got in the way.

Jeff McNeil hit a lead-off single, and he moved to second on a Michael Conforto walk. With one out, Pete Alonso hit what should’ve been a game tying single, but Disarcina held him up.

That hold looked even worse when Harrison Bader‘s throw was offline and short. Compounding the problem was Smith strikeout and Pillar flying out.

The Mets wouldn’t crack through until the fifth, and that’s because John Gant, who was arguably better than Walker over the first four innings, got wild.

After Pete Alonso reached on a rare Nolan Arenado error, Gant walked the next four Mets. The walks to Villar and James McCann each forced home a run giving the Mets a 2-1 lead.

Despite Gant losing it, the Mets couldn’t further cash in. Walker struck out and then Jeff McNeil grounded out.

It was the same situation in the eighth except this time it was against the Cardinals bullpen. The Mets loaded the bases, and Alonso walked to force home the third run.

They FINALLY got a bases loaded hit when Dominic Smith hit an RBI single, but it would only score one. That’s where it ended.

Kevin Pillar popped out. Villar struck out. McCann flew out. It was 4-1, and Walker was done. Fortunately, the Mets didn’t need more runs.

Trevor May pitched a perfect inning. Edwin Diaz walked a tightrope allowing Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado come to the plate as the tying runs.

Goldschmidt flew out, and Arenado grounded out. With that, the Mets earned a split of the four game series, and they had a winning road trip where Jacob deGrom didn’t pitch.

All-in-all, despite all that’s gone wrong and with all the drama, not too bad. It’s now time for the Mets to start putting together a big stretch.

Game Notes: The Mets wouldn’t call it a setback, but Carlos Carrasco was moved to the 60 day IL. Lindor snapped an 0-for-26 stretch with a ninth inning single. Even with that, Lindor has walked more than he struck out this season.

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Mets Split Bizarre Doubleheader

The first game of the doubleheader between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets was just an ugly game. Really, almost everything about it was bad.

The Mets were 0-for-5 with RISP leaving five men in baseball. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg.

The Mets loaded the bases in the fourth wig no outs. They only scored one run on a James McCann fielder’s choice. On the play, Nolan Arenado fielded the ball while stepping on the bag simultaneously.

After that, Jonathan Villar and Albert Almora struck out to end what was the Mets only rally of the game.

Of course, no discussion of that fourth inning is complete without discussing the Kwang Hyun Kim interpreter controversy and ensuing roughly 10 minutes of deliberations and replay.

Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizer went to the mound to talk with Kim, and Kim’s interpreter came from the dugout to the mound. Later in the inning, the interpreter joined Mike Maddux, Luis Rojas correctly pointed out that was technically a second mound visit necessitating Kim be removed from the game.

The umpires blew the call because they didn’t know the rules, and the replay officials got it wrong even when they informed them of the rule, they let Kim stay in the game.

Sadly, Marcus Stroman, who was making a start on a sore hamstring, made the mistake of allowing two earned runs.

The first was a Paul Goldschmidt first inning homer. In the third, Arenado had an RBI single. That’s all the runs the Cardinals would need.

The final score was 4-1 as Francisco Lindor threw a ball away with two outs, and Paul DeJong continued being a Mets killer by hitting a two run homer.

While we wouldn’t see the Mets offense respond to the Chili Davis firing in the first game, we would in the second.

After a scoreless first where we saw the Mets use Miguel Castro as an opener, the Mets bats would put runs on the board for Castro and Jordan Yamamoto, who was making his first Mets appearance.

Dominic Smith started a rally against Cardinals starter Johan Oviedo with a lead-off single. He’d move to third on a Kevin Pillar double.

With respect to Pillar, he’s really stepped up when the Mets needed it most. Their best hitter, Nimmo, was injured and finally hit the IL. Since Nimmo has gone down, Pillar is 8-for-16 with four runs, a double, two homers, and four RBI.

After two quick outs, you were left wondering if the Mets would ever score. That made Oviedo’s wild pitch allowing Smith to score a relief. What was even better was Tomas Nido‘s ensuing two run homer:

The Cardinals had a chance to respond in the second. Former Met Ali Sanchez doubled, and Oviedo tried to help his own cause, but Pillar would gun down Sanchez.

Villar increased the Mets lead to 4-0 with a solo homer in the fourth.

The Cardinals put a rally together in the fourth. Yamamoto hit Tyler O’Neill to start the inning, and he’d be on second with two outs when the Mets went to the bullpen.

Aaron Loup relieved Yamamoto, and he’d allow an inherited runner to score on a Dylan Carlson pinch hit RBI single. Things were getting dangerous after a Tommy Edman single, but Loup would retire Matt Carpenter to get out of the inning.

After the Cardinals scored one in the bottom of fourth, the Mets would get one back and then some in the fifth.

What was impressive was the Mets delivered with two outs again. With runners on first and second and two outs, Pillar and Villar hit consecutive RBI singles to increase the Mets lead to 6-1.

Villar, the surprise starter at short had a very good game. In addition to the two RBI, he’d later make a very good play in the hole.

From there, Trevor May pitched a scoreless fifth, and Robert Gsellman allowed one run in the sixth.

With Bernardo Flores Jr. wild, the Mets took advantage loading the bases and scoring a run on a Pillar RBI groundout.

The Mets sent Jeurys Familia to the mound to close out the five run lead. Even though such an act was impossible earlier in the week for Edwin Diaz, Familia took care of business securing the 7-2 win.

In a bizarre series of games, the Mets secured a split of the doubleheader, and they are in position to split the series with a win tomorrow. That closes out a wild 72 hours.

Game Notes: Sean Reid-Foley was the Mets 27th man for the doubleheader. Lindor is hitless over his last 24 at-bats, the second worst stretch in his career. Brandon Nimmo was put on the IL between games with Patrick Mazeika getting called up off the taxi squad. Keith Hernandez was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame.

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Pete Alonso Did Not Get Chili Davis Fired

In some ways, the Chili Davis firing was a surprise. After all, you don’t fly a hitting coach out to a city and fire him after one game. You also don’t see it happen just as the team starts scoring runs again.

On the other hand, this was not a surprising move in the least. Even with the recent surge, the New York Mets overall offensive performance was dismal, and Francisco Lindor still has not hit yet.

There’s another factor here as well – Zack Scott. The Mets interim GM was part of the Boston Red Sox analytics department. For years, we’ve heard how Davis’ approach and the more analytical approach doesn’t jive, and to that end, we see a disconnect which usually results in the coach getting fired.

Unfortunately, none of that was a sufficient explanation. There were reporters who went to Peter Alonso and his Donnie Stevenson joke as either a root cause or contributing factor.

For those who forgot, Alonso jokingly indicated Donnie was the reason for the breakout. Everyone knew it was a joke, and even Steve Cohen joined in the fun:

Here’s the problem. People can’t let fun things be just that.

Mike Puma of the New York Post asked Davis about it and the role in his firing. He “chuckled” at it, and he said:

It was a fun time for them, but it probably didn’t help. People were just trying to loosen up as a group and it worked that night. They went out and put some runs on the board. I am all for them enjoying the game

According to Davis, he thought it was a fun thing, and in the interview, he noted he believes he’d still have the job if Lindor was hitting. To a certain extent, the fact that Davis did speak to it not helping matters did make it a bit of a fair game to ask Alonso and the other players about it.

There’s just one problem with that. Before speaking with Davis or Alonso, that question had already been posed to Scott when he made himself available to the media after the firing. When pressed on the Donnie Stevenson angle, Scott had replied:

I think that should highlight that this isn’t about recent results. This is about the process behind the scenes. Whether we’re not hitting with runners in scoring position or knocking 17 hits or whatever we had last night, it’s not about that. It’s too early to be overreacting to small samples of results. It’s really about what the daily process is and the assessment — my assessment from doing a lot of research and observations of my own was that we can be better and this is a step towards that.

Put another way, this was about “process.” It didn’t have to do with Alonso’ creation of Donnie Stevenson and the players having some fun with that. It also really didn’t have to do with Lindor not hitting. This was a GM who had been involved in the firing of Davis in Boston, and as the GM, he once again had an issue with Davis’ process, and he once again took part in his firing.

Despite Scott speaking to that, there were articles written about the Donnie Stevenson effect, and then Alonso was asked about it. Aside from the effect the link had already been dismissed, Alonso was surprisingly candid in his responses, and he was obviously emotional about it. Despite that, Alonso was asked about the impact he had on the firing even after the obviously tenuous link had been dismissed.

To even suggest Alonso had a part in the firing of Davis is extraordinarily unfair, and frankly, it’s a cheap shot levied at a person who was honest and emotional about the firing. Alonso deserved much better than that, and anyone suggesting the player who started off the year with a 142 wRC+ to start the season had any impact on Davis being fired owes Alonso an apology.

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