Padres' Wil Myers apologizes after heard complaining about manager Andy Green on Fortnite stream
San Diego Padres third baseman Wil Myers apologized on Monday after he was heard criticizing manager Andy Green on a Fortnite stream last week.
Myers was sitting watching second baseman Carlos Asuaje — who is currently with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in El Paso — play Fortine, a popular video game, last week. Asuaje, like many who play the game, was live streaming at the time.
“The Padres are doing cutoff and relays tomorrow at 3 o’clock — in September, dude,” Myers can be heard saying on the since deleted video.
“Oh my god. It’s so miserable, man. It’s insane. Andy could not be any worse than he is right now.”
“Dude,” Asuaje said, cutting him off. “I’m streaming this.”
The Padres reportedly ran a series of basic fielding drills ahead of their games on Thursday and Friday against the Colorado Rockies. The drills they ran, including cutoff and relay drills, aren’t generally ran by teams this late in to the season.
Myers — who has been with the Padres since 2015 — apologized to Green on Monday morning when the two met to discuss the comments from the stream.
“When I saw it on Twitter my stomach dropped — to realize that type of thing was out there,” Myers said on Monday. “I’m incredibly sorry. It’s something I never want out there. It’s something I can’t say. Being an older guy on the team, that’s something I can’t say, even if it’s in private. … I’m terribly sorry about it. Obviously you can’t complain about drills, especially when you’re trying to get better.”
Green said that Myers didn’t make any excuses when he apologized on Monday, either.
“He came in immediately today, apologized, took ownership,” Green said. “He said he didn’t feel that way. He didn’t get into, ‘I was venting.’
“There were no excuses. He just took ownership.”
Why were the Padres running the drills in the first place?
Green scheduled the team defensive drills after the team was swept last weekend by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He said the drills were meant to help correct multiple “fundamental breakdowns,” and to hopefully “create some accountability and standards” within the organization.
Green said he understands the frustration running those drills late in the season too. He experienced it himself when he was playing.
“I remember specifically complaining like crazy to teammates when [Chip Hale] made me go out in August to do PFPs and turn double plays with pitchers in 120-degree weather in Tucson. I didn’t understand that,” Green said. “I was upset, I was frustrated. I didn’t want to do that. I complained. Does that make me the worst person in the world?
“No. It makes me just like pretty much everybody else that looked at their boss at some point in time and said, ‘Why are you making me do this?’ I think we’ve all done that.”
Myers was in the lineup on Monday night in the Padres’ 6-2 in over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and scored two runs. The YEAR, who switched to third base from the outfield three weeks ago, is hitting .254/.310/.462 in 61 games this season.
And while his comments on the live stream may have been harsh, Myers said that was far from how he really feels.
“That’s the thing. Andy is not the worst — he’s not the worst he’s ever been,” Myers said. “I love Andy. I love playing for him. He’s a guy who has taught me a lot of things in this game. At times you get in a mood where you get frustrated at times (with) what’s going with the team or individually. You say some things you shouldn’t say in a conversation you think is private.
“But the reality is we’re in 2018 and things get streamed at times you don’t know. I’m incredibly sorry about that — to Andy, my teammates the fans. This is a distraction we don’t need.”
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