QUEENS — Drew Smith became the second Mets pitcher this season to be ejected for failing a sticky substance check after crew chief Bill Miller deemed that both his left and right hands were deemed too tacky to come in from the bullpen in the seventh inning of New York’s 7-6 loss to the crosstown-rival Yankees on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
“I didn’t think they were sticky,” Smith said. “I mean, obviously, they do. I’m not sure if they’re going to come out with the statement saying something similar to [Max Scherzer’s ejection and suspension] like, ‘stickiest hands ever’ or whatnot. But my hands weren’t sticky and I had everybody check them as I was coming off the field.
“The MLB guy, in the tunnel, I kind of forced him to feel my hands… and he actually laughed and said there was nothing there. So really, what else is there to do?”
The 29-year-old right-handed reliever implored that he hadn’t changed anything in terms of his preparation for the outing against the Yankees or the amount of rosin that was used. Yet Miller and his crew told him that both his hands were too sticky — but they didn’t say anything about his glove.
“It doesn’t really make much sense to me because if my left hand was sticky, I feel like my glove would be sticky as well,” Smith said. “So there’s just a lot about the explanation and the process that I didn’t really agree with or understand.”
What has left Smith and the Mets so mystified by Tuesday night’s decision is the lack of consistency that is continuously being shown by MLB umpires on the issue. What has been deemed legal for Smith all season by other umpires suddenly wasn’t.
“The process is so arbitrary that it can change from one crew to the other,” he said. “I think that’s the main issue… That’s the frustrating part is that it can change from crew to crew. There are no set guidelines.”
With Smith facing a 10-game suspension, the Mets bullpen will be shorthanded just as the starting rotation was in late April after Scherzer was run by Phil Cuzzi after it was deemed the sweat and rosin on his hand and glove was illegal during a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We’re all angry about this one,” Scherzer, who lasted 3.1 innings and was tagged for six runs by the Yankees, said. “You feel his hand and you don’t feel anything… He’s been cleared by every other umpire and now all of a sudden, he’s getting thrown out.”
Both righties expressed a desire to have MLB monitor the spin rates of pitchers to help tip off who is using sticky substances illegally — a point that Scherzer has harped on since his ejection and a stat that Smith pointed out has stayed consistent. That would at least give the pitcher in question an opportunity to prove his innocence or the necessity of the substance on his pitching hand to grip the ball and aid its control.
“He hasn’t thrown a pitch. How do you know he’s going to be increasing his spin rate?” Scherzer asked. “You don’t know that. It’s subjective on what the umpire thinks. So until he’s actually guilty of increasing the spin rate or doing something to the ball, how can we sit here and say that? Because I threw a fastball up and in and hit [Giancarlo] Stanton in the elbow. Thank God I had enough grip.
“If I had less grip and you keep cracking down on me and say that I need less grip, the ball is at his head. So this isn’t just a black-and-white issue. This is a gray issue and it’s complex and I know we’re all very frustrated because it doesn’t appear that Drew violated any rule.”
