Memories of Jorge Lopez

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

DFAed following his on-field meltdown and post-game remarks.

[Lefty Specialist]

They need to DFA about half of this team.

[Edgy MD]

Interesting. Forsaking all protocol and giving him a memorial thread before his actual departure. BOLD!



My key memory, before today anyhow, apart from that terrific bird's nest of a head of hair, was the https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL202404080.shtmlJulio Teheran Game. The Mets had a nice lead despite, you know, Julio Teheran, but the Braves kept chipping away at the Mets' pen. Lopez was the last guy we had left to throw at them, and the Mets barely held on. It doesn't look that bad in the box score (one run on two hits), but everything was thrown really straight (almost comically so), and hit really hard and really deep, and afterwards, Centerfield opined https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33255&p=151261"Hey. Let's never pitch Lopez again."



Not his worst notion, as it turned out.

[Edgy MD]

The more complete interview is here, after Mendoza's, and he clarifies later that, yeah, he's on the worst team.



[media=youtube]TR4AooKfVd4[/media]



Not anymore, it seems.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Considering how ill-prepared they are to surrender relievers this whole thing was pretty remarkable.



I was rooting for Lopez to be the bullpen dark horse this year. Now I'm moving onto Dedneil Nunez

[Edgy MD]

I wonder if he might have saved a coach or two. Like they needed sacrificial lamb and just as they were lining someone up, he conveniently offered himself.

[metirish]

I guess this might be rock bottom, probably will get worse though

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Edgy MD wrote: I wonder if he might have saved a coach or two. Like they needed sacrificial lamb and just as they were lining someone up, he conveniently offered himself.

Heff is getting long in the tooth--pre Cohen even. I think he's still vulnerable



So we've had the punishment DFA and the GM addressed reporters this week and now a players only meeting. Mendy can now try the lineup-out-of-a-hat.

[ashie62]

Maybe this will spark better efforts from the Mets



Lopez's actions could be those of an unhappy fan



Crazy



Carlos Mendoza, I mean wtf?

[Fman99]

I actually want him to stay now that he's called them out for being terrible. Is that weird?

[kcmets]

Watch -- he'll end up a Brave, Phil or Yank -- and flourish.

[kcmets]

=metirish post_id=157144 time=1717062745 user_id=72]
I guess this might be rock bottom, probably will get worse though

[Edgy MD]

The New York Times has a great lede that really captured my confusion after first listening to the interview.

A debate ensued shortly after the jarring words left Jorge López's mouth. Did the ​​now-former New York Mets reliever really say he had been playing with “the worst team in the whole f—ing MLB?” Or did he say he was “the worst teammate in the whole f—ing MLB”?

[ashie62]

Possibly both

[Edgy MD]

That was pretty much how the paragraph concluded, that Lopez so clarified to a "Mets source" (Gelbs) that he meant both. Having watched the interview, it wasn't clear as such to me. Nobody really knows what the hell he meant, 'cept it was bad.



It's weird. Puerto Rican-born Lopez has been in the league a long time, probably had spent a lot of time stateside before that, and his accent isn't very thick at all. He seems comfortable expressing himself in English, but his sentence construction is all over the place and nobody knows quite what he was saying, like he was high the whole time.



It's also kinda funny. His nickname is "El Pichu" which translates more or less to "Cutie." And he is cute, despite his scraggly beard. He has good teeth, a sweet dimply smile, fun hair, engaging eyes, and he as he sits there talking barely-coherent-but-career-burning nonsense, I want to give him a hug. He may just be a journeyman reliever who was never going to be a big piece and who'll be forgotten soon enough, but in the moment, he seemed like the self-destructive hero in a CW young adult drama, whose earnest charm and talent has allowed him to get away with so much along the way that he's become tragically addicted to screwing up.

[metirish]

Who is the teammate he is talking about?

[Benjamin Grimm]

=metirish post_id=157168 time=1717077564 user_id=72]
Who is the teammate he is talking about?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Lopez wqs an All-Star in 2022.

[G-Fafif]

With his hat on, I thought he looked a bit like Rick Aguilera, a bit like Dylan from Modern Family.



Seemed to be the one pitcher who'd be deployed in any relief role, not altogether unsuccessfully.



Has guaranteed mention of his name won't elicit "I don't remember this guy being a Met" comments for at least a couple of years.

[metirish]

So apparently Lopez son is sick and waiting for a intestinal transplant, man had a lot on his mind

[Edgy MD]

That's some very serious shit. How awful.

[G-Fafif]

[G-Fafif]

NJ.com's Mets beat guy thread…

[Edgy MD]

This gets worse.



Hopefully a Spanish-language interview gets some clarification.

[kcmets]

Is there a window of opportunity to un-DFA him? Ya know, like

the ol' 12 hour rule or something?

[MFS62]

Terrible to learn about his son.

We may remember his exit in the same sad way we remember the exit of Wilmer Flores- wanting to give him a hug.



Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

I don't see what the big deal is about Lopez throwing his glove in the stands. How is that any different from a player wrecking a watercooler in frustration or smashing his bat against the tunnel wall?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I imagine the larger issue is with the things he said, rather than him giving a free souvenir to some confused fan.

[Edgy MD]

Also, both teams and leagues differentiate conduct on the field from conduct in the dugout and in the tunnel and in the locker room, even if the camera can get some of the latter.



But yeah, if it's the end of the road, and it sure seems like it, he seems to have reached it more with his defiant interview than for the behavior precipitating it, which would more likely have resulted in a fine or two.

[batmagadanleadoff]

It's a lot less malignant than swinging a golf club in a crowded locker room. Or shooting bleach from a water gun at reporters. In the locker room.