Mets fans boo Javier Baez after 'thumbs-down' controversy, apologies

"I didn’t mean to offend anybody," Baez said before the game. "This is something that I’ve done in the past against the other team. I did it in LA to the dugout. I might [have said] something wrong about how I was booing the fans, and I really meant to [say] like, 'Boo me now' — and not to the fans — to our dugout because I’ve done it with the other team and against other teams. 

"I’ve never seen the same fans and I didn’t say the fans are bad. I love the fans. But I just felt like we were alone. The fans obviously want us to win, and they pay our salary, like everybody says. But we want to win, too. The frustration got to us, and I didn’t mean to offend anybody, and if I did offend anybody, we apologize." 

Baez is currently set to hit free agency after the campaign and might already have one foot out of New York unless he and his Mets teammates produce an unexpected September winning streak. Judging by Tuesday's events in Queens, at least some pockets of Mets fans won't miss Baez if he's playing elsewhere next spring.