Jorge López on Thursday said he called himself the “worst teammate” during Wednesday night’s postgame address, attempting to clarify confusion about his viral comments.
There has been debate about whether the Mets reliever called himself the “worst teammate” or called the Mets the worst team in Major League Baseball during a profanity-filled media availability.
López, 31, was born in Puerto Rico, and English is not his first language.
In a post to his Instagram story Thursday morning, López wrote that he said “worst teammate.”
“Thanks media for [making] it worse,” López wrote.
During Wednesday’s media scrum, López was asked to clarify if he said he was on the worst team, to which he responded, “Yeah, probably.”
The comments came after López was ejected from the Mets’ 10-3 loss to the Dodgers for arguing a checked-swing call. On his way to the Citi Field dugout, López tossed his glove into the stands — an incident Mets manager Carlos Mendoza deemed unacceptable.
López said afterward he did not regret the glove throw.
The Mets decided Wednesday night to designate López for assignment, a source told the Daily News, but had not made the move official as of Thursday morning.
López told reporters after the game that he hadn’t spoken yet with Mendoza or president of baseball operations David Stearns, which a source told The News was not true.
The right-handed López has a 3.76 ERA over 26.1 innings this season. He owns a 5.42 ERA over nine MLB seasons with six teams.
Last season, the Twins placed López on the 15-day injured list for a mental health-related break, a move the reliever embraced.
Developing story, check back for updates.
