Dominic Smith was surprisingly sent down to Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, and it's safe to assume that he didn't the news too kindly.

Buck Showalter declined to give the details on what he said was a "tough conversation, not one anybody wants to have," but it had to be done.

“Primarily, we need a pitcher," Showalter said of the roster move. "We’re not gonna put our bullpen in harm’s way. We’ve had some short starts, and we need a pitcher. Just gonna try to keep everybody healthy down there. Dom was the option we ended up with."

Smith being in Syracuse is by no means permanent - the big league club wants him back in Queens as soon as possible.

"He’s had over 100 plate appearances to give him a chance to see if he can kind of get back to the things we know he’s capable of, and hopefully he can do that and have a lot of confidence he will and get him back up here helping us, especially when we get our pitching hopefully a little more straightened out… from a physical standpoint. We have some bullpen pieces that we really need to be careful with.”

This obviously wasn't Showalter's first time telling a player he had to go down to the minors. But Smith was, at one point, seen as a key cog for an up-and-coming Mets team that has now arrived. Now, Smith is in the minor leagues for the first time since 2018, not including his 2019 rehab assignment.

“Sure, it’s difficult. I never become cold or insensitive to that," Showalter said of his chat with Smith on Tuesday. "I got a lot of respect for Dom… It’s a tough conversation, not one anybody likes to have. I’m very sensitive to how he might be feeling. You always try to put yourself in their shoes, knowing in a lot of cases, you can’t. It’s one of those things where somebody says ‘I know what you’re feeling.’ No you don’t. No you don’t. You don’t, so don’t act like you do. I’ve learned situations like that, you’re better off listening than talking a lot.”

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