Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Prior to Tuesday afternoon’s series-opening game with the Miami Marlins, New York Mets infielders Francisco Lindor and Javier Báez took some time to address the media for the team’s thumbs-down gesture.
Both Báez and Lindor stood in front of the Mets dugout at Citi Field, and took full accountability, and apologized for their actions. Both players said they love Mets fans, and it was never their intention to offend anyone.
“The fans want us to win, and we want to win too. The frustration just got to us. I didn’t mean to offend anybody. And if we did offend anybody, we apologize. We’re just trying to move forward and leave this in the past,” Báez said.
He added, “I play for the fans and I love the fans. I love the fans in New York. They’re passionate about this team and this organization. I have so much respect for them.”
Lindor echoed these sentiments and went on to explain his interpretation of the thumbs-down gesture.
“It was to the dugout. Thumbs-down to me means the adversity we’ve gone through this whole time. It was wrong, I apologize to whoever I offended, it was not my intent to offend people. We can’t go against the fans, I’ve never done it in my career. We play for the fans,” Lindor said.
He added, “we all want to succeed, we want to win. I made a commitment for 10 years, and that’s what I want to do, win. I want to focus on winning, I want to embrace these fans, and I want to focus on making this organization the greatest organization out there.”
Mets manager Luis Rojas said pregame that the team did hold a team meeting this morning at Citi Field, and while he kept the exact details in-house, the skipper said they did address what happened a couple of days ago, and how to make things right and move forward.
Rojas went on to say he was proud of the way both star infielders came in today and took full accountability for their actions. Mets owner Steve Cohen also chimed in on Twitter supporting his players’ apologies.
“Glad to hear our players apologizing to our fans. Let’s get behind our players today and go out and win 2 today,” Cohen tweeted.
