Jesse Winker says he'll 'hate the city of Milwaukee forever'

Jesse Winker is not in a hurry to change his reputation as the new Milwaukee Brewers villain.

The New York Mets' designated hitter homered Tuesday, part of a 7-2 win by the New York Mets over Philadelphia to take a 2-1 series lead in the National League Division Series. With a win Wednesday, the Mets would advance to the NLCS less than a week after stunning the Brewers in Game 3 of the teams' wild-card series.

Winker, who drew boos from Milwaukee fans when he appeared with the Mets during the series, told the New York Post that he's not sad to bid adieu to American Family Field.

“As far as Milwaukee goes, I’ll hate them forever," Winker told Mark W. Sanchez.

Winker, whose resurgence with the Nationals and Mets in 2024 illustrates pretty clearly that he was still overcoming the effects of offseason knee and spinal surgeries when he posted career-worst numbers for the Brewers in 2023, said he felt "obligated to play, and I didn't perform" last year. It raised eyebrows when he was added to the postseason roster, and he was retired twice during the 2-0 series loss to the Diamondbacks, drawing boos from home Milwaukee fans.

So surely, there was a little bit of satisfaction when he delivered a two-run triple and then scored to give the Mets a 3-2 lead in Game 1 of the series. He chirped at Brewers shortstop Willy Adames while circling the bases , causing a back-and-forth in which Adames invited Winker to settle their differences in the parking lot ( and apparently he wasn't kidding ).

Winker told the Post he had not spoken to Adames and had no intention to do so. He slammed his helmet to the ground vigorously in Game 3 after scoring an insurance run in the ninth to make it 4-2, moments after Pete Alonso's gut-punch of a go-ahead three-run homer. That drew a fresh round of boos.

Winker was plunked by a Frankie Montas pitch in the final series of the regular season, something Winker believed was on purpose.

“It’s part of sports, these fans, they can react to you however they want,” Winker said to the Post. “They pay the tickets. They’re the veins and the lifeblood of our sport … but I’ll hate the city of Milwaukee forever.”

(This story was updated to add new information).

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jesse Winker says he'll 'hate the city of Milwaukee forever'