It does not sound as if the Mets will act as whistleblowers after hearing alleged whistling from the Yankees.
Following sounds coming from the Yankees’ dugout Saturday that led to Mets suspicions and eventually to a dugout- and bullpen-clearing altercation during the Subway Series finale Sunday, the Mets are “past” the controversy, Luis Rojas said Monday.
He signaled the club will not ask Major League Baseball to look into it.
“There’s nothing to follow [up on] there,” the Mets manager said before opening a series with the Cardinals at Citi Field.
Indeed, even if the Yankees had been whistling to alert their hitters what pitch was coming — apparently believing Taijuan Walker was tipping his pitches — there would not be a rule against it, provided they were not using technology to obtain the signs or pitcher tells. (The equipment that MLB found the Astros had used, with a camera picking up signals and a monitor as part of the system, crossed the line.)
If the whistling from the Yankees’ dugout was for a competitive advantage, it would be surprising in its overtness. The Mets could hear it, and the speculation clearly irked the team, with Jonathan Villar believing he uncovered the scheme and then talking with Walker on the mound.
A day later, Francisco Lindor’s second of three home runs involved his making a whistle gesture toward the Yankees’ dugout, and after Giancarlo Stanton answered back both with his own home run and his own words while rounding the bases, the benches emptied.
Rojas said he, too, heard whistling from the Yankees’ dugout, which the Bombers have explained as reliever Wandy Peralta being overenthused and a whistler.
Lindor said he was not 100 percent sure the whistling related to something more nefarious.
“Whatever it was, there’s nothing other than a whistle,” Rojas said. “…Sometimes if you catch something like this, players can find it disrespectful, teams can find it disrespectful, and maybe send a message.”
That is what the Mets did in a 7-6 victory in which Lindor’s eighth-inning, go-ahead shot made the difference.
There will not be another Subway Series game this year, but Lindor will be tied to the Mets and Stanton to the Yankees for a very long while, so there will be time to determine whether the controversy has ended.
“We don’t need to tell anything to MLB,” Rojas said. “We all think it’s fair game. But if you get caught, you send a message, and I think the guys did it on the field verbally, and that was it.”
