Tommy Pham, according to a recent report by The Athletic, told Francisco Lindor while they were Mets teammates, “Out of all the teams I played on, this is the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with.”
While Pham also reportedly added a great amount of respect for the work ethics of Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Pete Alonso, the quote generated some negativity towards the 2023 Mets, who will go down as one of the most disappointing teams in franchise history.
Asked about the report before Thursday’s game, the Mets stood up for their effort.
“Tommy is entitled to his opinion,” Buck Showalter said. “What works for one player may not work for another. It's fine. I see the work these guys put in every day. I don’t even comment on it. We got other things we need to be on top of, getting the team to be ready to play and finish the year.
“Tommy has had a good year, and we wish him well.”
Nimmo seemed to think that “hard work” is relative, and every player has a different process to get ready for a game during a 162-game season.
“If this was based on how hard people work there would probably be a lot more people here,” Nimmo said, via Mike Puma of the New York Post. “Ultimately, you have got to do whatever gets you ready for the season or for the game. And this year, the results didn’t match what we were expecting. Whether we put in a ton of hard work or we didn’t, that can all be speculated.
“Tommy has a very valuable opinion because he has been around the league a long time. He’s seen a lot of different organizations, which a lot of us haven’t, so he definitely has a right to say his opinion on the season. But all I know is whatever you do as far as your work goes, it only matters as far as your results on the field.”