PORT ST. LUCIE — The head of the Major League Baseball Players’ Association expressed support Thursday for Mets o wnership, and reiterated that the union is open to in-season testing for human growth hormone.
After his annual meeting with players, which lasted about 90 minutes, MLBA executive director Michael Weiner addressed the Mets’ $50 million payroll drop, and the financial uncertainty facing Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz. The Mets lost approximately $70 million last year, and are being sued for more than $300 million by a trustee representing the victims of Bernard Madoff.
Team insiders maintain that the Wilpons and Katz are not thinking about selling the team and expect to survive the wave of financial challenges. On Thursday, Weiner backed that view.
“I think the Wilpons are doing everything they can to try to put a competitive team on the field,” Weiner said.
“The Wilpons want to win. I don’t know much about the legal circumstances. The Wilpons have been strong owners, and whatever is happening outside with respect to them is happening outside. But the way they’ve conducted themselves throughout their tenure is what I’m relying on.”
Weiner acknowledged that players across the league have expressed concerns that the uncertain state of the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers will depress the overall free agent markets.
“The concern is, players want all 30 franchises to be healthy and to be prosperous,” Weiner said. “It’s best for the game. It’s not as narrow a concern as, ‘Well, we want the Dodgers or the Mets to be able to bid for free agents.
’ What we’re looking for is hopefully quite soon the Mets will be in a situation to come back and be a team that is going to be more competitive and again be the flagship franchise they’ve been for so many years under the Wilpons.”
Mets players also greeted Weiner with questions about the new blood testing program for human growth hormone, and issues related to Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun’s successful appeal of a drug suspension last month.
The Mets were tested for HGH for the first time last Wednesday.
Referring to the new collective bargaining agreement announced last November, Weiner said, “The contract calls for spring training collections, and also offseason collections. If there are going to be in-season collections, they would be postgame.”
He went on to indicate that in-season testing, while not required by the CBA, was a solid possibility.
“We are committed to discussing and considering in-season testing, including doing what we can this year, so that players can experience it,” Weiner said. “But there is no contractual commitment to expanding the testing to in-season.”
As for Braun, many Mets were skeptical of his insinuation that his urine sample was tampered with, and were irritated by the MVP’s acquittal on a chain-of-custody loophole. “What a joke,” one player told the Daily News last month.
On Thursday, Weiner said, “I’m glad that players have questions. Players have questions about the Braun case. They have questions about blood testing. They have questions about other changes that we have made. That’s healthy.”
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