JAY LIKES NEW TRIBE
Amid turmoil, Bruce settles in with Indians
In the span of less than a month, Jay Bruce left an injury-riddled Mets club, landed on the defending American League champion Indians, who are in the thick of the 2017 playoff hunt and more recently has watched from afar as his hometown of Beaumont, Texas, and Houston have suffered the wrath of Hurricane Harvey.
While Bruce said Monday at Yankee Stadium that “it’s going great” with his new club and that he came into a “pretty good situation,” Bruce is juggling many emotions both on the field and off — whether it’s tracking Harvey’s devastation or keeping tabs on his old Mets teammates. Bruce said his wife and young son are safe and living in Cleveland, and that other family members still in Texas are out of harm’s way.
On the baseball side of things, Bruce said it “killed” him to see his former Mets teammate Michael Conforto go down recently, when the young slugger swung and missed at a pitch Thursday at Citi Field and suffered a tear in his posterior capsule in his shoulder, ending his season. Bruce said when the Mets began spring training in Port St. Lucie in February, there were thoughts of a World Series title dancing in every Mets player’s mind.
“Going into spring training with the Mets, we thought we were a World Series contender. I still believe that, had the injuries not taken over,” Bruce said before the Indians started a three-game set against the Bombers at the Stadium. It was Bruce’s first time back in New York since the Mets traded him, and he batted fifth and played right field going 0-for-3 with a walk on Monday. “But I hate to see it for the guys, the individuals — obviously Ces (Yoenis Cespedes) down again. Seeing Conforto get hurt, that killed me. It really did. He was having a great year. He’s kind of, I feel like the next guy over there.”
Bruce, 30, said Conforto “ended up being the pulse of that team,” and that the lefty-swinging outfielder was a player “you could count on, who you could rely on.
“I really appreciated and enjoyed the way (Conforto) went about his business, because he’s a young kid. New York, you’re under a magnifying glass, and for a young kid with all those expectations, he couldn’t have handled it any better,” said Bruce. “I look forward to an awesome career for him. Hopefully this is just a small setback for him and he gets back to being himself pretty soon.” As a 10-year veteran, Bruce said he understands the business of baseball, and he said he’s not surprised the Mets became sellers at the deadline and into August (Bruce was traded to Cleveland Aug. 9). Veteran Curtis Granderson got dealt to the Dodgers, another championship contender this season. Bruce said he knew the Yankees were interested in him as well, but didn’t know if he was ever close to wearing pinstripes. The Yankees reportedly got hung up on how much of Bruce’s $13 million salary the Mets would pick up in any trade package.
“I knew (the Yankees) were in the mix. I think the biggest thing with the Indians, where they came in, is when (Michael) Brantley went down,” said Bruce. “They felt like they needed to kind of bolster the outfield a little bit when he went down. I think things happened fast. I’m here now and I’m happy to be here.”
Once he is a free agent this winter, though, Bruce said the Mets would “absolutely” be a team he would consider re-joining.
“I’m not someone to shut off any opportunities or burn any bridges. I believe the Mets are a team that feels obligated to put a winning group out there. I enjoyed my time in New York. I think there’s a great group of guys there. I think the talent’s there. They have a nucleus there,” said Bruce. “My goal in free agency is to find somewhere where we have a chance to win, where myself and my family is comfortable, and ideally I’m familiar with. We’ll see what happens.”