Sandy Alderson was never a fan of former Mets general manager Billy Eppler, but he denies he was the one who sent an anonymous letter informing Major League Baseball of a plan to fabricate injuries to create roster spots. did.
The former Mets president addressed the topic on the latest episode of “The Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman Show.”
“Was I a big Billy fan? No, but it’s different than anything else,” Alderson said. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think Major League Baseball has identified who wrote the letter. And the letter said something that I didn’t know. So the short answer is no. ”
Eppler was terminated from the World Series by Major League Baseball earlier this year after a four-month investigation found that baseball executives intentionally fabricated injuries and improperly placed players on the IL during his tenure as Mets general manager. He was suspended until then.
An anonymous whistleblower, believed to be a Mets employee, provided injury-related records to the league, forcing MLB to launch an investigation, with which Eppler fully cooperated.
Eppler resigned as Mets GM on October 5, the same day the investigation was made public.
“If I wanted to contact the commissioner’s office, I would have contacted Commissioner Dan Hallem directly, who I have known for 20 or 30 years,” Alderson said. “From my standpoint, I believe this issue is behind the Mets and behind us, and there was absolutely no reason for me to write a letter like that. But anyone who knows me , I know that’s not the path I would have pursued.”
Alderson returned to the Mets organization as team president in 2020 after Steve Cohen purchased the team, and helped Eppler become general manager in November 2021.
Alderson served as team president until his retirement in September 2022.
Although he didn’t want to go into details during his podcast appearance, he said he was aware that Eppler had engaged in phantom IL behavior while with the Mets, and that he had taken steps to stop it. said.
Opinions vary on how widespread the phantom IL practice is in Major League Baseball, depending on who you ask.
Alderson said he has only done that once in his 40-year career as a baseball executive, and that happened in the 1980s.
“I’ll tell you about the players involved. I felt terrible about it and would never do it again,” he said. “In my opinion, this is not a common practice, and to the extent that it is a common practice, it shouldn’t be. There’s obviously a gray area when it comes to injured list and judgment needs to be made. But with the Mets… I’m not just focusing on what happened, but there have been cases of the disabled list being used inappropriately, and it has been used inappropriately across the league from time to time, but most of all it disappoints me. It was the media reaction to this that meant no one was terribly upset about it and no one thought it wasn’t something that happens all the time.
“In fact, the only person I’ve seen who reacted that way was Zack Scott, who has his own little podcast. But I don’t think it’s widespread anyway, and That should not be the case, and Major League Baseball has taken action where it deems it necessary.”
