Major League Baseball

Rude with food? Mets veterans rip pitching prospect for lunch faux pas

Published Mar. 4, 2015 2:33 p.m. ET

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There are some things you don't do in the big leagues, and it seems eating during an intrasquad scrimmage is one of those things.

New York Mets third baseman David Wright took it upon himself to have a word with prized Mets pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard on Tuesday after Wright caught the pitcher eating lunch in the team's air-conditioned clubhouse. The problem? The rest of the team was playing an intrasquad scrimmage at the time.

Wright confronted the pitcher, explaining to Syndergaard he needed to be watching the game with his teammates. According to Newsday, Syndergaard didn't immediately head back to the dugout, relenting when veteran reliever Bobby Parnell joined Wright.

"Being a young player, any chance you get to learn, you go out there and learn," Wright told Newsday.

Parnell helped get Syndergaard back in the dugout with a much more direct approach. According to Newsday, Parnell picked up Syndergaard's full plate of food and threw it away.

"If a kid's not playing nice, you take his toys away," Parnell told Newsday. "When you have a young and impressionable player, and you need to make him understand something that he's not understanding, you have to be a little forceful."

The message was heard loud and clear, and Syndergaard addressed the situation Wednesday morning, saying he had learned his lesson. "It was just really a mistake on my part," Syndergaard said Wednesday, according to ESPN.com.

"It was straight-up ignorance on my part, just thinking I can go in there during a game and grab a quick bite to eat. It's just a learning experience for me. I should have been on the bench."

Wright also apologized to Syndergaard, according to ESPN, for letting the story get into the media.

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