The New York Mets have secured the services of Jose Bautista. The outfielder had been released by the Braves after a short stay in Atlanta and made a decent debut against the Miami Marlins.
Sometime on Tuesday Bautista got a call at his house in Florida with the information that the Mets had signed him. He hurried to the airport in Tampa/Florida and flew to Flushing/New York, where he headed directly to Citi Field.
He did not meet Manager Mickey Callaway until the warm-up on the field. “I said,’You’re playing in Left Field.'” And he said,’All right,'” Callaway reported on the short presentation of the two before the match against Miami.
Bautista did not waste any time and hit a double right in his first at-bat, whereupon he even scored the only run for New York in the game (5-1 Miami). Finally, the 37-year-old was 1-3 and was replaced in the ninth inning by Jay Bruce.
“When I’m ready to resign, I will,” Bautista said afterwards. “I don’t think I’m ready for that, though.”
The decision to engage Bautista, who has been an all-star six times in his career, was mainly due to numerous injuries in the outfield of the Mets. A few days ago Center Fielder Juan Lagares had to say goodbye for the rest of the season with a shifting of toes, while Left Fielder Yoenis Cespedes drops out indefinitely with a pulled hip flexor.
All results of the night you will find in our new MLB Scoreboard.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.