The video of Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen appearing to criticize a plan allegedly belonging to Commissioner Rob Manfred went viral on Thursday, forcing the Mets to issue this statement of apology from Van Wagenen:
“Jeff Wilpon called Commissioner Manfred this afternoon to notify him that our players voted not to play. They discussed the challenges of rescheduling the game. Jeff proposed an idea of playing the game an hour later.
I misunderstood that this was the Commissioner’s idea. In actuality, this was Jeff’s suggestion. The players had already made their decision so I felt the suggestion was not helpful. My frustration with the Commissioner was wrong and unfounded. I apologize to the Commissioner for my disrespectful comments and poor judgement in inaccurately describing the contents of his private conversation with Jeff Wilpon.”
Later, following the official postponement of Thursday’s Mets-Marlins game, MLB issues a statement attributed to Manfred, which read:
“Over the past two days, players on a number of clubs have decided not to play games. I have said both publicly and privately that I respect those decisions and support the need to address social injustice. I have not attempted in any way to prevent players from expressing themselves by not playing, nor have I suggested any alternative form of protest to any club personnel or any player. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.”
Finally, later in the night, after Van Wagenen both publicly (via the Mets’ “post-game” Zoom call with the media) and privately apologized to the commissioner, Mets CEO Fred Wilpon and COO Jeff Wilpon both released statements of their own – although there is one clear error in the text.