Mets reliever Drew Smith suspended 10 games for sticky substance vs. Yankees
Umpire Bill Miller, right, ejects Mets reliever Drew Smith during the seventh inning of a game against the Yankees on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
MLB suspended Mets reliever Drew Smith for 10 games on Wednesday for violating its policy on foreign substances, as expected following his ejection Tuesday, creating a curious statistic that tells part of the story of their season.
Of the thousands of substance checks administered by umpires across the majors this year, only three have resulted in ejections and thus suspensions.
Of those three, two have been Mets. Max Scherzer went through the same process in April.
The Mets also have two of the four pitchers to be disciplined in the minor leagues this year.
“I look in the mirror and go, OK, are we doing something wrong that we need to fix? That’s my first thing,” manager Buck Showalter said. “You want to make sure you are not doing something more than is allowed. I don’t see that. It’s isolated cases. I’ve got some very personal feelings about it, but I think where we are, it doesn’t do anybody any good to air those.
“That’s because everything I look at is through what’s best for the New York Mets. Having Max or Smitty not with us is not good for us. There’s things you have to wear.”
Showalter noted that he had a lengthy call with MLB officials Wednesday afternoon, before the league officially made the Smith announcement. He declined to share details of that call.
Smith did not appeal the ban because, as Showalter relayed, there was virtually no chance he would win. His suspension began immediately and is scheduled to run through June 25, when the Mets finish a series in Philadelphia. During that time, he is allowed to be around the team but not in the clubhouse, dugout or bullpen during games.
Smith was about to pitch the top of the seventh inning when first-base umpire Bill Miller stopped him before he got to the mound to check his hands. Miller deemed them too sticky, so Smith was ejected.
After the top of the ninth, Miller also stopped David Robertson for a longer-than-normal substance check.
“He felt like my hands were sticky,” Robertson told Newsday on Wednesday. “And I told him that his hands felt sticky. I said, I have absolutely nothing on me. I’ve done nothing but grab the rosin bag.
“We were just having a conversation about it. I was like, you can search me wherever you want to. I have nothing on my body that is not given to me by MLB . . . There was no foreign substance on my hands. The fact that I was even told that was shocking.”
Like the rest of the Mets, Robertson doesn’t like the umpire-enforced system to check for sticky substances.
“I don’t hold anything against Bill. He’s just trying to do his job,” he said. “I don’t know if this whole setup is the right way to go about this.”
In Smith’s absence, the Mets are not allowed to replace him on the roster, meaning they will have to operate with a 12-man pitching staff.
“That’s why they penalize you,” Showalter said. “To make it hurt.”
To ensure they have enough arms to get through a given game, they will have to be more aggressive and proactive than usual in calling up rested pitchers. Two of their eight (right now seven) bullpen spots are newly held by option-able pitchers — those who can be sent to the minors. They are lefthander Josh Walker and righthander John Curtiss.
“There’s ways to maneuver around it,” Showalter said of bullpen management. “The tough thing is when you have to send down people who are performing well.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
