Phillies reliever Nelson Figueroa said in his two years with the Mets, he gave the team “blood, sweat, tears, my heart and my soul.”
Now he wouldn’t give them the time of day.
After being shocked by his release from the Mets in early April and landing with the defending NL champ Phillies, Figueroa last night painted the Mets as a petty, often dysfunctional outfit that worries too much about the other guys and not enough about themselves. And if you wonder if Figueroa is motivated against the Mets, his answer is simple.
“Absolutely.”
But his pursuit for retribution didn’t go so well. The Mets ripped him for three runs and four hits, including a double by pitcher Raul Valdes, in the eighth inning of an 8-0 Mets win.
Figueroa said the difference in clubhouse could not be more pronounced. He claimed the Mets always were asking about opponents, wondering what they said and thought. It’s not that way with the Phils
“Being in New York, you’re always going to [have] drama whether it’s on the field or off the field, in the front office or the clubhouse there’s always going to be drama,” said Figueroa, 1-1 with a 3.78 ERA in seven games with the Phils as a long reliever.
“[New York] doesn’t even come up in conversation here,” Figueroa added. “We don’t worry about New York or the other teams. That’s always been going on over there. ‘What did Jimmy Rollins say?’ a couple years ago when he said they were the team to beat in the East. They proved it. A year later, guys were making plans for the playoffs with two weeks left to play. Up five games, ‘We’re fine.’ Then to see it slowly slip away and to say goodbye to Shea Stadium the way we did, that was hard.”
Figueroa blasted the Mets’ “reward system,” noting some players languish in the minors — he named outfielder Jesus Feliciano in Triple A — while others are promoted from lower levels. Plus, Figueora said when a call-up makes good — and he pointed to Ike Davis — it can revitalize a team.
“The reward system in that organization just isn’t there for a minor league guy,” he said. “They jump people they want from other levels.”
Naturally, he felt he got a raw deal from the team he grew up idolizing in Brooklyn.
“Everybody thought I did. I don’t think there was one person that said it was the right move or he deserved to go,” the righty said. “Sometimes they don’t realize their decisions affect your life. This isn’t just baseball, it’s my life. . . . It’s a business and they kind of get shocked when you take it personally, but it’s hard to not.”