Buck Showalter encouraged by Mets' meeting with MLB execs about HBPs, stunned Cardinals' Clapp gets no ban
New York Mets manager Buck Showalter and Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi meet at home plate to exchange lineups before an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Friday, April 29, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Buck Showalter was encouraged by one aspect of the Mets’ hit batsman problem Friday afternoon and displeased with another.
First, the good: Showalter said he, Mets pitchers and a handful of position players met with MLB executives at Citi Field and crafted a constructive dialogue about baseball grip and the disproportionately high number of Mets who’ve been hit by pitches.
“It went well,” Showalter said of the meeting, which included Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, along with former players Dan Otero and Rajai Davis. “A lot of good give-and- take and I appreciate them coming out. Being on those committees sometimes, you really understand how many things are really going on behind the scenes that don’t get broadcast.”
Then there was the bad: At the conclusion of his pregame news conference, Showalter discovered that Cardinals first-base coach Stubby Clapp, who dragged Pete Alonso to the ground from behind during Wednesday’s brawl, had not been suspended. The Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado was dinged for two games and reliever Genesis Cabrera got one game. No Mets were suspended, though Taijuan Walker and Yoan Lopez were fined.
“Nothing?” Showalter said incredulously. “Clapp got nothing? Really. Glad you didn’t ask me about that.” At which point he got up and left the room.
In all, though there was some progress, the hit batsman issue is a continued concern. The Mets had been hit an MLB-high 19 times going into Friday’s game, and Alonso had been beaned twice (and hit four times total). The closest team was the Orioles with 14.
Showalter said that since the beginning of spring training, 15 pitches have been thrown between the shoulders and heads of his players, though he didn’t believe they were intentional. Some of it is was because of the scouting reports and some of it was just erratic pitching.
“I think people lose sight of the courage it takes to climb into the batter’s box when guys are throwing 95 to 100 and some of them don’t completely know where it’s going in this age where everyone chases velocity and not command, it seems like,” he said.
Showalter indicated the meeting included talk about addressing the grip issues that have come to the fore after MLB’s crackdown on Spider Tack and similar sticky substances last year.
“Pitchers may have taken it too far one way — well, [they] did,” he said. “Now we’re kind of looking to see if we might have taken it too far the other way.”
Davis OK. J.D. Davis, who was hit in the left foot with a pitch Wednesday in the half-inning before the benches cleared, is progressing and will not get further imaging, Showalter said. Davis was in a boot Thursday but intended to take batting practice Friday.
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.
