WASHINGTON -- A team-sponsored visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Tuesday during a series against the Washington Nationals ended up in controversy for the New York Mets because of who did not attend.

Dillon Gee, the pitcher who was making his major league debut that night against the Washington Nationals, was excused. Only three other players from the 33-man squad did not attend: Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez.

Sources told ESPNNewYork.com that Mets ownership is fuming about the no-shows. One of Fred Wilpon's favorite charitable endeavors is Welcome Back Veterans, a group he co-founded that addresses the mental health needs of veterans and their families.

Third baseman David Wright noted it would have been nice to have better turnout for Tuesday's visit. And since so few players blew it off, it was obvious about whom the third baseman was speaking.

"I have not spoken to anyone who didn't go, but I do have feelings about it. Sure," right-hander R.A. Dickey said when asked about the no-shows. "In our own way, it's a way we can pay personal tribute to people who we take so for granted every day.

"To have the empathy and to be in the moment enough to know that there are people in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting for the freedom that I'm able to enjoy ... To be able to look a guy in the eye who doesn't have arms or legs and say, 'Thank you,' that's a big deal. I take it personally."

Beltran responded after Wednesday's 3-2 rubber-game win against the Nationals that he had a conflict with planning for a high school in Puerto Rico he has pushed to build. Castillo suggested he was too squeamish. Perez declined to discuss the matter at all.

"You see people with no legs and with no arms, being in a hospital like that, I don't like to see that," Castillo said.

Said Perez: "I don't answer anything about outside the stadium."

Beltran added: "I don't know who is creating this issue. This offseason I went to visit the veteran hospital in New York. It's not that I'm against it. I actually went with [Mets principal owner] Fred Wilpon. ... And I wanted to go, but I had my own things to do."

The Mets had a team meeting Monday to implore the players to participate in the team visit the following day. Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon even flew down from New York for that specific purpose.

Regardless of the reason, blowing off a team function that involved visiting wounded servicemen, many of whom had lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq, hardly was a savvy public-relations move for a player, particularly when it became so conspicuous.

When reporters entered the clubhouse at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, Gee was the lone player in the clubhouse. Fifteen minutes later, Beltran, Castillo and Perez arrived together. The rest of the team arrived later en masse, some still wearing name tags from the visit.

Beltran, Castillo and Perez all have shaky relationships with the Mets organization, although Castillo insisted that wasn't the reason behind the no-shows.

"No, man. No, no, no," Castillo said. "That's not what it is. We didn't go because we didn't like to see that."

Jeff Wilpon, via e-mail, declined to comment.