Late Thursday night, it was reported that Major League Baseball is investigating both the New York Yankees and Mets after a story on SNY – the Mets’ television network – reported that the Mets would not fight the Yankees in a bidding war for free agent Aaron Judge.
That story, which included that owners Hal Steinbrenner and Steve Cohen “enjoy a mutually respectful relationship,” also said the Mets would only enter the Judge sweepstakes if the Yankees were totally out of the picture.
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MLB’s Collective Bargaining Agreement says, “Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs.”
However, Commissioner Rob Manfred does not believe the owners and organizations committed any wrongdoings.
“I was a labor [lawyer] first and labor rule one is you want to make sure when you make an agreement, you live up to the agreement,” Manfred said Thursday, via The New York Post. “I’m absolutely confident that the clubs behaved in a way that was consistent with the agreement. This was based on [an internet] report.”
However, Manfred and MLB must do their due diligence to make sure there was no collusion between the two New York owners.
YANKEES-METS ALLEGED TRUCE IN AARON JUDGE BIDDING WAR PROMPTS INVESTIGATION: REPORT
“We will put ourselves in a position to demonstrate credibly to the MLBPA that this is not an issue,” Manfred said. “I’m sure that’s gonna be the outcome. But obviously we understand the emotion that surrounds that word [collusion] and we’ll proceed accordingly.”
SNY noted that the Mets “see Judge as a Yankee,” and they probably will not break the bank in free agency unless something falls into their lap.
MLB is expected to request phone, text and email records between Steinbrenner and Cohen.
Judge is a free agent after spending his first seven seasons with the Yanks – he is the hottest player on the market after breaking Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs (he hit 62) while leading MLB in RBI (131), on-base percentage (.425), and slugging percentage (.686). His .311 batting average was second in the AL, and at one point, he was on pace to win the Triple Crown.
The 30-year-old is a finalist – and the heavy favorite – to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday night over Shohei Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez.
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