Anyone associated with the New York Mets has likely experienced some level of frustration this season, but it sounds like Tommy Pham was was fed up long before the team traded him.
A recent report in The Athletic revealed that Pham had dinner with a few of his then-teammates back in early June to discuss what the Mets had to do to turn things around. Pham expressed to shortstop Francisco Lindor that he felt players on the team simply needed to work harder. The veteran also said he wanted to start implementing more than one batting-practice group so he could use some time to work on live reads in the outfield.
Pham was complaining to Lindor, not about him. Pham respected how Lindor held himself accountable every day during an abysmal 7-19 month of June. In a new story from The Athletic, Tim Britton and Will Sammon shared more details about the conversation between Pham and Lindor. Pham revealed one strong remark he made to Lindor.
“Out of all the teams I played on, this is the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with,” Pham says he told his former teammate.
Pham felt that the group of players at the restaurant, which also included infielder Eduardo Escobar and catcher Francisco Alvarez, was receptive to his feedback. Lindor even told The Athletic that after Pham was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lindor thanked the 35-year-old for “teaching me how to work hard again.”
There were rumblings after Pham was traded that he had become a clubhouse problem with the Mets. Owner Steve Cohen went out of his way to dismiss that narrative. Pham is known for being an intense player, so the losing probably bothered him more than many of his teammates.
