New York Mets reliever Jorge Lopez on Wednesday appeared to call the team “the worst” in Major League Baseball, though he later claimed that he’d been misunderstood.
Lopez will be cut by the Mets after his profanity-laced candor and an ugly performance in a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He allowed a two-run home run by Shohei Ohtani and got ejected for arguing a check-swing call. He then defiantly threw his glove into the stands as the Mets lost their 10th game out of the last 12.
Asked if he regretted his actions on the field, Lopez, a Puerto Rican who primarily speaks Spanish, said what sounded like he was playing for “the worst team in, probably in the whole fucking MLB.”
SportsNet New York, the cable channel that broadcasts Mets games and filmed the interview, reported that he said, “I think I’ve been on the worst team in probably the whole f―king MLB.”
After footage of his remarks went viral, some people insisted that Lopez had said or meant “teammate.” But reporter Steve Gelbs wrote on X that Lopez confirmed to him what SNY had reported.
Indeed, Lopez can be heard in the locker-room interview verifying his quote.
A reporter is heard off-camera asking Lopez if he said, “I’m on the worst team.”
“Yeah, probably,” Lopez replied.
“And they were embarrassed by you?” the reporter continued.
“Yeah,” Lopez seemed to say.
Fast-forward to 2:43 for Lopez’s clarification:
However, Lopez later suggested on Instagram that he’d actually said “the worst teammate,” and blamed the media for making his situation “worse” by misquoting him.
Regardless, what is not subject to interpretation is that Lopez’s days as a Met may be done.
Being “designated for assignment” means a player is immediately removed from the major-league roster .
