Mets' Wilmer Flores plays through tears after thinking he was traded
There's no crying in baseball. Unless you think you've been traded by the team you love.
As rumors spread throughout Citi Field that the Mets had acquired outfielder Carlos Gomez from Milwaukee in a trade that would possibly include infielder Wilmer Flores, fans gave the rookie shortstop a standing ovation when he came to bat in the seventh inning. Then Flores wiped away tears when he warmed up at shortstop before the eighth.
"When I came up to hit I heard everybody cheering. I said, 'Why?' There's no reason," Flores said, via ESPN. "I thought [a trade] was the only reason. ... I was sad, being with the Mets forever, and all my teammates here. That's why I got emotional."
It wasn't until after the game that Flores learned the truth.
"There is no trade," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said. "Unfortunately social media, etc., got ahead of the facts and it may have had an adverse affect on one of the players rumored to be involved. It was an unfortunate situation."
Flores was signed by the Mets at age 16 from out of Venezuela in 2007, CBSSports.com reports.
Writes CBSSports.com's Matt Snyder: "There have got to be an awful lot of emotions flying at the same time -- without even mentioning he was in the middle of a pennant race and now all of a sudden is not -- to fight through while concentrating on playing."