At a Citi Field that once loathed Jesse Winker, he returned a banged up but healthy enough conquering hero.
The former Mets nemesis who enjoyed needling fans as an opponent has won over Queens with both his play and style of play, passion with each swing, slide and occasional helmet spike.
After two long weeks on the road — in which Winker was jeered particularly in Milwaukee in a series in which a subplot emerged concerning the former Brewer versus the current Brewers and their fans — Winker heard loud cheers when he was introduced as the Mets’ starting DH.
Such a full circle moment will not happen with the Brewers.
“As far as Milwaukee goes,” Winker said before the Mets and Phillies played Game 3 of the NLDS at Citi Field on Tuesday, “I’ll hate them forever.”
Winker was a Brewer in 2023, when he did not hit well after offseason surgeries on his knee and a disc replacement.
He was making about $8 million in an arbitration year and “felt obligated to play, and I didn’t perform,” Winker said.
He somewhat controversially cracked the postseason roster and received two at-bats as a pinch hitter in that year’s wild-card series against the Diamondbacks.
He struck out and grounded out and was booed loudly by his own team’s fans.
Winker returned to Milwaukee during this year’s season-ending sprint and was drilled by a first-pitch, 97-mph Frankie Montas fastball in the butt in the fourth inning on Sept. 27.
Winker believed something similar would happen in the series and believes the Montas pitch was intentional.
He said there is a “mutual respect” between him and Montas and said that “if you’re going to hit someone, that’s probably the right way to go about it,” in aiming for the backside.
But the pitch had side effects.
“It kind of triggered a little disc in my lower back, getting out of the way … so I was definitely pretty pissed off about that,” Winker said. “I was dealing with that [injury], but everyone’s dealing with stuff this time of year.”
That game became his final regular-season game, returning for Game 1 of the wild-card series.
Winker drilled a two-run triple in a Mets victory and exchanged verbal jabs with Brewers shortstop Willy Adames, who told Winker he would meet him in the parking lot after the game, and later told The Post’s Jon Heyman that he indeed waited in the lot.
Winker said he has not talked with Adames since and has no intentions to.
The series ended with a hurting Winker drilled again by Devin Williams in the ninth inning of Game 3. Winker somehow stole second and scored from second on a Starling Marte single. Winker rose from his dive and shattered his helmet on the dirt, a final show of emotion in an emotional series.
A series victory, in that city, must have felt personal.
“It’s part of sports, these fans, they can react to you however they want,” Winker said. “They pay the tickets. They’re the veins and the lifeblood of our sport … but I’ll hate the city of Milwaukee forever.”
The bad blood that exists in the Midwest did not travel to Queens after Winker arrived in a midseason trade.
Winker is not just a popular figure around Mets fans these days but inside the Mets clubhouse.
It was Winker who began the trend of applying eye black, with different designs, on “pretty much anyone who isn’t starting that day,” Winker said.
He looked at Sean Manaea on Sunday, when No. 40 Luis Severino was on the mound, and decided that day warranted a No. 40 below Manaea’s eyes.
In a season with “OMG,” Grimace and the Playoff Pumpkin, the Mets discovered a new good luck charm.
“It just feels natural. It’s not forced,” Winker said of a team with plenty of gimmicks. “It just comes up, and we run with it.”