Sal Licata confronted MLB insider Jon Heyman on Thursday, as he has grown tired of writers asking questions to current and former Mets players about Pete Alonso in response to questions about the slugger’s potential toxic clubhouse presence, which Sal himself never said.
“You guys are writing about it, but nobody is talking about the real issue: nobody ever said Pete was the problem!” Sal said. “So when you ask Mark Canha if Pete Alonso was the problem in the clubhouse, that’s a stupid question, because nobody ever said that.
“Forget about Alonso being a bad guy. Nobody ever said he was. We should clear that up. It was never said.”
Heyman replied that, since Sal mentioned Alonso by name after making his observation, that it could be assumed that he meant Alonso was the source of the clubhouse toxicity. But Sal has long asserted that Alonso was only mentioned because he was a reported trade chip, not because he had anything to do with the clubhouse atmosphere.
“Let’s not make it like I’m not around. Not to mention, I talk to people around the clubhouse all the time,” Sal said. “I’ve been going to clubhouses for 20 years. You don’t think I know what I’m talking about? That’s not even the real issue…whether I was in the clubhouse or not, I never said Pete Alonso was a bad guy.
“The clubhouse did have issues. It was reported before I said it, it was reported after I said it. That’s the story.”
At the end, the two made their apologies and moved on to more Mets and Yankees talk, which you can hear in the above clip.