Sandy Alderson denies writing letter to MLB about Billy Eppler, Mets utilizing phantom IL

So, who sent an anonymous letter tipping off Major League Baseball on a scheme former Mets GM Billy Eppler was executing to create roster spots with phantom IL stints?

We still don’t know, and we may never know.

Former team president Sandy Alderson was asked during a recent appearance on The Show podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post if the letter was his doing, but the long-time executive wholeheartedly denied any involvement.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “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 Dan Halem and the commissioner, people I’ve known for over 20-30 years.

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

Alderson admitted that he himself used the phantom IL at one point during the early days of his 40-year career in baseball, but he felt terrible about it and never considered doing it again.

He also admitted that he was aware of Eppler's wrongdoings during the latter stages of his time with the Mets, and while he tried to put a stop to it, he was clearly unsuccessful.

But the thing that upset the 76-year-old the most about the incident, which resulted in a year-long ban for Eppler, was the reaction from people around the game when the news first broke.

“No one thought it was something that didn’t happen all the time,” Alderson said. “The only person who I saw that reacted that way was [another former Mets GM] Zack Scott, who does his own little podcast.

“It is not in my view a common practice, and to the extent that it is a common practice, it shouldn’t be. 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.”