Mets' Max Moroff gets rude New York welcome after back-to-back errors

Tom Gatto

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Mets' Max Moroff gets rude New York welcome after back-to-back errors image

MLB fans have been waiting four months for this: giving a player massive grief on social media for messing up. (What, you thought we were going to say "watch actual MLB teams play"?)

Their target Saturday night was Mets nonroster infielder Max Moroff.

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The former Pirate got the start at third base against the Yankees in the teams' first exhibition of Summer Camp (Jeff McNeil was given the night off). Moroff was anonymous until the sixth inning, when the wheels came off.

First, he threw away a slow dribbler by Giancarlo Stanton, a toss that took Mets first baseman Pete Alonso into the path of a jogging Stanton. A few inches here or there (or a faster Stanton going down the line), and Alonso could have been in serious physical danger.

Moroff had a chance to make amends when the next batter, Gio Urshela, hit a routine grounder. Moroff took his time, gathered his feet — and sailed the ball over Alonso's head.

He got a third chance with the next batter, Miguel Andujar. This time, Moroff got the out, but Stanton scored from third.

And because a Met Mets'd, Twitter — and not just Mets Twitter — was ready to dance.

There were more tweets, of course. Many more. For two errors in an exhibition.

Moroff is attempting to make the Mets' 30-man Opening Day roster as a reserve, but his Flushing debut won't help. The Mets have multiple options, including Luis Guillorme, Eduardo Nunez, Gordon Beckham and Jed Lowrie, who remains sidelined with leg injuries.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.