Teufel: Darryl Isn’t a Team Player

Tim Teufel isn’t that sorry to see Darryl Strawberry leave the New York Mets.

“His leaving might be beneficial to us,” the Mets infielder told the New York Post. “This team can use a gamer, a guy who wants to win and get the most out of his ability at all times. Those type of players are hard to find these days, but Cincinnati proved you can win with 25 guys. When you don’t have togetherness, you can’t do it.”

“I don’t blame the Mets at all for taking a stand,” Teufel was quoted as saying in today’s editions of the Post. “The last two weeks of the season, the way Strawberry handled himself and didn’t want to play in a pennant race . . . you’re going to give a guy $20 million who wouldn’t go out there in those games?”

Strawberry missed several games near the end of the season with a bad back. Teufel said players on the team questioned whether the injury was that serious.

“Obviously, he was not going to jeopardize anything going into the offseason as a free agent,” Teufel continued. “He wanted to be healthy. He was thinking totally of himself, not the team. We still had a chance to win and Darryl just wouldn’t play. . . .

“If it was a true injury, and he was getting in early, taking treatment, taking the proper steps, then that’s different. But just to shut it down, it left some of us wondering how he could do it.”