Mets manager Buck Showalter backs Rob Manfred on sticky-stuff issue

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred got a very unlikely supporter in the increasingly polarizing “sticky stuff” debate — Mets manager Buck Showalter.

Showalter, whose Mets are responsible for two of the three players suspended this season for sticky stuff violations, said he didn’t think the league’s assessment methods were arbitrary — echoing the comments Manfred made during the owners’ meetings Thursday.

“I agree with that,” Showalter said Friday. “I hope that’s what’s going on. I have no reason to think that’s not going on.”

Despite being forced to play without Max Scherzer earlier this year, and going without Drew Smith for 10 games, Showalter doesn’t believe the Mets are being unduly targeted. The only other player to face a 10-game sticky stuff suspension this year is the Yankees' Domingo German, who had been warned during a previous start. Smith was tossed out of the game Tuesday before ever throwing a pitch, and insisted there was nothing but sweat and rosin on his hands.

Showalter said they’ve discussed how to avoid further suspensions, including checking pitchers on their own. The Mets aren’t allowed to replace Smith on the roster, meaning they’ll be playing with 25 men until June 26.

“I’m not a big conspiracy [theorist], that people are sitting in some room and diabolically finagling a way to stick it to a certain person or a club,” Showalter said. “That doesn’t happen…First of all, nobody can keep a secret. Nobody. Especially in sports. Somebody is going to talk. I tend to look in the mirror and say what are we missing, what do we need to do better instead of blaming somebody else.”

After getting tossed in April, Scherzer insisted he, like Smith, was using just sweat and rosin. Reliever David Robertson Tuesday said he was almost ejected for using sticky stuff, too, and was baffled.

“He felt like my hands were sticky,” Robertson told Newsday. “And I told him that his hands felt sticky. I said, I have absolutely nothing on me. I’ve done nothing but grab the rosin bag…You can search me wherever you want to. I have nothing on my body that is not given to me by MLB."

"The fact that I was even told that was shocking.”

Manfred, though, said there was no reason to reassess the vetting process — one where “stickiness” is determined solely at the discretion of the umpire. Rosin is permitted unless it’s used to “intentionally discolor or damage the ball,” and pitchers are barred from using other foreign substances such as spit, mud or wax, according to league rules. After Smith’s ejection, umpire Bill Miller said he didn’t know if the reliever was using anything but rosin, but “all I know it was sticky.”

That’s enough for the commissioner, who said he was satisfied with how umpires are trained in the matter.

Umpires know “what it feels like when you’re doing something illegally — combining it with rubbing alcohol or sunscreen or some other sticky substance,” Manfred said. “I just don’t accept the premise that it’s arbitrary.” He added that they err on the side of not issuing a violation.

“Do I privately think that we’re doing something different than everybody else?” Showalter said. "I don’t know. I’m not [in other clubs'] bullpen, in their clubhouse, checking them. The only thing we have to worry about is ourselves.”

That said, Showalter didn’t think the sticky stuff evaluation method was foolproof.

“I’d hate to get to the point when every time somebody starts throwing harder, they get checked more,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s happening . . . I’m not paranoid about that stuff but I am alert when there’s something that deviates from what everyone else is getting.”

Notes & quotes: Pete Alonso is taking swings in the cage just a little over a week after landing on the injured list with a bone bruise on his wrist — typically a three- to four-week injury. “He feels good and he's making a lot of progress,” Showalter said. “We’re feeling really lucky about what could have happened and where we are and I think he’ll be joining us before long. Don’t know what 'before long' is.” . . . Little-used rookie Mark Vientos will get some more game action in the coming days, with Showalter tentatively slating him to play Sunday and Monday. . . . Eighty-year-old former Met Steve Dillon will throw out the first pitch Saturday. Dillon, of Baldwin, memorably pitched off the mound at last year's Old Timers' Day at age 79.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.