Mets manager Luis Rojas confirms that Jed Lowrie wanted knee surgery while with club
Oakland Athletics second baseman Jed Lowrie throws to first base against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in Phoenix. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
Mets manager Luis Rojas confirmed Wednesday that Jed Lowrie did want to get surgery on his badly injured left knee – a surgery Lowrie said in a separate report that the Mets would not allow him to undergo until his contract expired at the end of the 2020 season.
Lowrie, who signed a two-year, $20 million contract with the Mets in January of 2019 and had only eight plate appearances to show for it, bore the brunt of fan dissatisfaction as the nature of his long-term injury was kept mostly under wraps by the organization. He got the surgery in October of 2020 and signed with the A’s; he went into Wednesday slashing .333/.417/.548 with two homers in 12 games.
"I was aware that he wanted to have the surgery but there’s some conversations that I wasn’t really a part of," Rojas said before the Mets game against the Phillies. "I knew he needed the brace to play and that’s what our conversations were more about. [He needed a] brace that would keep him on the playing field, that would be adjustable so he would play, he could slide, he could do some things. That’s what we were searching for the whole time and he worked out with those braces, but we never had a chance to get one that would actually get him to play."
According to the report in the Athletic, though, the brace wasn’t Lowrie’s primary concern. He had a knee fat pad impingement – an injury that left him in constant, severe pain. According to Lowrie, he asked the organization for the procedure and was denied, then threatened with a grievance if he went ahead and got it anyway. The ones making the decisions then – Fred and Jeff Wilpon, and then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen – are no longer in the picture, though the Wilpons still have a negligible share of the team. Before becoming GM, Van Wagenen was Lowrie's agent.
"I missed playing so much, it was very difficult," Lowrie told the Athletic. "I’ve had some injuries, but this last situation with the Mets was really frustrating."
Rojas said he was fully aware that Lowrie was frustrated, and concentrated his efforts on trying to get the infielder back in action, even if only for a few games. The Mets tried all sorts of braces to support the knee, as well as treatment. Lowrie even received a number of injections at the end of the 2020 season as a final salvo. None of it worked, and Lowrie didn’t play a single game in the COVID-shortened season. The Athletic report described that season as "unpleasant."
Jed Lowrie throws during an MLB summer training session at Citi Field on Monday, July 6, 2020. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
"He was frustrated because he wanted to get in there, he wanted to play, he wanted to be part of the team," Rojas said.
Rojas couldn’t confirm or deny whether Lowrie asked ownership for the surgery, as he claims.
Asked if he thought of advocating for Lowrie, since he was aware of his desire for surgery, Rojas said it wasn’t quite his place, because it was a medical matter.
"I’m going to leave it on the medical side of it," Rojas said. "I’m sure they have the meetings. They know if it’s surgical or not…I have nothing to say if it comes down to those conversations. All the conversations[I had] were about the brace the whole time – with the front office and with the medical staff."
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
