NEW YORK — With the Mets continuing to sink deeper and deeper toward the bottom of the standings, the fans are clamoring more and more for action. Whether it’s firing manager Buck Showalter or pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, or even cutting ties with struggling slugger Daniel Vogelbach, fans are begging the Mets to do something to shake things up. Some fans are often begging owner Steve Cohen directly via social media.
So, Cohen has decided it’s time to talk. The hedge fund manager sent a tweet to his 286,043 followers Tuesday afternoon announcing that he will be meeting with the media before Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I will be doing a press conference tomorrow before the game,” the tweet said. “You will get it from me straight.”
Owners typically don’t talk much during the season, preferring to let their operations executives who run the team day-to-day do the speaking. But Eppler has only met with reporters four three times this season, with the third time coming Tuesday afternoon. The subject of Cohen’s press conference is unknown, but with Eppler giving a vote of confidence to Showalter and the rest of the on-field coaching staff, it doesn’t seem like Cohen is going to come in and throw any unexpected curveballs.
“I know he wanted to connect with you guys midyear,” Eppler said Tuesday before the Mets played the second game of a four-game set against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field. “I think he said that in spring training, I’ll talk to you guys midyear. So he’s going to talk to you midyear.”
Showalter and Eppler have been asked about their relationship with Cohen, but both have declined to go into specifics, citing privacy.
“He’s very involved in the things and when he’s needed, he’s always there,” Showalter said.
However, both have also praised his handling of the team, especially during trying times.
“A lot of that I want to just kind of keep between Steve and I, so I’ll kind of speak more in generalities,” Eppler said. “The questions that he’ll ask about is how do we get a player from this point to that point and how will we know it’s working? And if that doesn’t work, what are we going to try after that? So it’s generally those questions.”
Cohen’s press conference will most likely just be some sort of state-of-the-team address. He has backed off of his Twitter tirades over the last two years, preferring to talk directly to specific reporters when he has a comment or a contract instead. Cohen mostly only tweets about wins these days, though the Mets aren’t doing too much winning right now.
Of course, this is the Mets and this is a mercurial billionaire, so that could always change. But at least publicly, Cohen continues to be supportive of the job Eppler and Showalter are doing.
“He and I are sharing a lot of the same feelings of disappointment, amongst other things,” Eppler said. “We want to do whatever we can to help and support the players, the coaching staff and just get them in a position where they kind of feel the freedom to play and have our players be in a position where they’re just playing loose and they’re playing free, and playing hard and playing tough, not thinking about all of the other factors.”
U-S-A! U-S-A!
Former Mets third baseman Eduardo Escobar became an American citizen Tuesday after passing his naturalization test. Escobar, a Venezuela native who was traded to the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend, was receiving help from his Mets teammates to prepare for the test. Part of that help included some good-natured ribbing, but Escobar gave it right back to his teammates.
When quizzed about the presidents, he cited a former MLB manager with the same last name as the country’s first President.
“They were kidding him thinking he was going to mispronounce something, asked him who the first president of the United States was,” Showalter said. “And Escy had that devilish look on his face. He said, ‘Ron Washington.’ Beautiful, ain’t it?”
Roster move
The Mets recalled David Peterson from Triple-A Syracuse to start Tuesday’s game against Milwaukee and optioned right-hander Vinny Nittoli in a corresponding move. With Drew Smith back, the Mets had to part with a reliever.
