Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz and The Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes discuss how the Mets could have better protected Jorge Lopez from his mistakes. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The key point for me is the Mets did not do enough in this moment to protect Lopez from himself.
And I think the reason that that happened and this is understandable is that he was deadweight already, that the decision to cut him d fa him, the uh whether that had happened before or after what he said, it was clearly being discussed, it was on the table after what he did on the field, right?
And so what that means is the Mets were less incentivized to send someone in there to protect him if this had been theoretically, Edwin Diaz, who the Mets have under contract for, you know, a lot more years and a lot more money who is a vital member of their future.
I would think that this would have gone differently, right?
I think that they would have been more encouraged to ensure that he did not say anything stupid or silly and that everything was conveyed clearly.
I, I think that not having a translator did him a huge disservice.
I I I’m sympathetic to a point to the Mets pr staff because you can’t go up to a player who does not want a translator and force an interpreter on that player.
Think about that.
Look.
That’s a bad look.
Right.
It’s a very difficult situation that required tact where in the middle of him jumbling through the response someone should have been like, hey Jorge, it seems like you’re really struggling to kind of convey what you’re feeling here.
Let’s bring in a translator just so we can get it right.
That’s the way the situation should have been handled.
But in the moment that’s really difficult.
Right?
And that is, it’s all just very unfortunate and very sad.
Yeah, I, I’m confused too by just how quickly it seemed like he became persona non grata in that room.
You know, I think that’s like sure you threw the glove and it was a bad day, but I, like, I’m confused about how quickly he was sort of left out to dry because, you know, seeing clips of teammates and stuff, there was no one sort of it.
It was nobody kind of has gone in and been like, yeah, he got screwed for lack of a better term.
Like it’s just been a weird, weird situation and you’re right, like you can’t tell him, use an interpreter.
But what you can do is like many, you know, you can listen in and realize something’s wrong and, and try to fix it and I, I just feel like everyone kind of failed him and uh it’s, it’s my worst nightmare.
Personally.
So, like misquote someone who didn’t know what they were saying basically.
Um, and so, you know, I just kind of feel for him and I feel for everyone who, like, watched that happen and was not in a position to kind of, like, understand it fully.
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