NEW YORK -- Wilmer Flores is not in the New York Mets' lineup Thursday, the day after he thought he’d been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers.
The trade ultimately fell through. Mets manager Terry Collins said he had a conversation with Flores Thursday morning, and Collins thinks Flores is OK.
“I think so. You hope so,” Collins said. “But I also thought I’d give him today to kind of get himself back on the ground and move forward.”
Reports about the trade -- which would have sent Flores and Zack Wheeler to the Brewers in exchange for Carlos Gomez -- surfaced during the Mets’ game against the San Diego Padres Wednesday night.
Flores received a standing ovation from Mets fans when he batted in the bottom of the seventh inning and was visibly emotional when he took his position at shortstop in the eighth, before eventually being removed from the game by Collins.
“I thought Wilmer handled it great,” Collins said. “OK, he showed a little emotion, there’s nothing wrong with that for me. It shows you they’re real people. I told him this morning, I said I thought he handled it great.”
Collins called Wednesday the weirdest day he’s had in his career as a manger.
“It was a tough night,” Collins said. “I’ve been through a lot of situations where there’s a rumor that someone’s gonna be traded, but not that the deal was done, and see what happened afterward. It was a learning experience for us all.”