Turmoil rocked the Mets clubhouse today when manager Terry Collins gave Jon Niese no advance warning before posting a lineup that had the pitcher batting dead last.
Niese was blindsided after being one of only two Mets to have an extra-base hit in Monday night’s loss to the Marlins (Niese hit a pinch-hit triple in the eleventh inning).
Niese allegedly confronted Collins in the manager’s office and demanded to know why he was batting behind the likes of Jason Pridie and Ruben Tejada. According to some reports, Niese told Collins he “needed a day.”
Other reports claim that Niese was going to tell Collins that he needed to sit out the game because he had some sort of injury, but he couldn’t think of an injury that someone on the Mets hadn’t already had this season.
Face of the franchise David Wright reportedly angered Mets management by refusing to criticize Niese. Wright claimed that plenty of players have “needed a day” here and there. When it was pointed out to Wright that he was resisting going on the DL even after finding out that he had a stress fracture in his back, Wright reportedly said something along the lines of, “yeah, but nobody ever tried to bat me ninth.”
Fortunately, Tuesday night’s game was rained out before the situation could escalate. Now the Mets have some time to figure out how to handle Niese, who is one of the last links to the Mets’ glory years (Niese first came up in 2008, the last year the Mets had a winning record).
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