Sandy Alderson denies involvement in Mets, Billy Eppler IL controversy

During an appearance on "The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman" podcast, former New York Mets team president Sandy Alderson denied that he sent an anonymous letter informing MLB that former Mets general manager Billy Eppler had violated rules regarding use of the injured list. 

"Absolutely not," Alderson said about his potential involvement, per John Flanigan of SNY and Christian Arnold of the New York Post. "Anybody that knows me knows that’s not the avenue that I would’ve pursued. If I had wanted to communicate with the commissioner’s office, I would’ve gone directly to (MLB executive) Dan Halem and the commissioner, people I’ve known for over 20-30 years."

The Mets hired Eppler in November 2021, and it was believed this past September that incoming team president of baseball operations David Stearns would retain Eppler through the winter. However, Eppler resigned in early October amid an MLB investigation, and he ultimately was placed on the ineligible list through the entire 2024 season for his alleged violations of rules related to injured list placements during the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. 

"Was I a big fan of Billy’s? No, but that’s separate apart from anything else," Alderson explained. "As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think Major League Baseball ever determined who wrote the letter. And there were things in that letter that I was unaware of. So the short answer is no."

Under Eppler and former manager Buck Showalter, the 2022 Mets won 101 regular-season games but collapsed late in the campaign before they lost a wild-card playoff series to the San Diego Padres. The 2023 Mets were arguably the biggest disappointments in all of MLB before team owner Steve Cohen signed off on a summer fire sale. 

Both before and after MLB announced Eppler's punishment, many writers and analysts noted that "every team" fabricates injuries for roster-management reasons each season. Alderson seemed to disagree with such takes.

"It is not in my view a common practice, and to the extent that it is a common practice, it shouldn’t be," Alderson said during the podcast episode. "Clearly, there are gray areas with respect to the IL and there are judgment calls that need to be made, so Major League Baseball took action where it thought it needed to. But in any event, it’s not something that I think is widespread and it shouldn’t be, so Major League Baseball took action where it thought it needed to." 

Alderson served as general manager of the Mets from the fall of 2010 through July 2018, and he later became team president in September 2020. He then shifted out of that role after the 2022 season.