Commish confident city teams not cheats

As MLB begins its investigation into whether the two New York team owners, Hal Steinbrenner of the Yankees and Steve Cohen of the Mets, communicated improperly regarding Aaron Judge’s free agency, commissioner Rob Manfred said he was “confident” the clubs did not violate the new collective bargaining agreement by colluding with each other.

“I was a labor [lawyer] first and Labor Rule 1 is you want to make sure when you make an agreement, you live up to the agreement,” Manfred said Thursday. “I’m absolutely confident that the clubs behaved in a way that was consistent with the agreement. This was based on [an internet] report.”

Asked about the possibility of “collusion” among the owners less than a year after a new CBA was signed following a lockout that caused a delay to the start of the season, Manfred said he didn’t believe it happened.

Manfred added the league was in the early part of the investigation.

“We will put ourselves in a position to demonstrate credibly to the MLBPA that this is not an issue,” Manfred said. “I’m sure that’s gonna be the outcome.”

Speaking at the MLB owners’ meetings at the league’s headquarters in Midtown, Manfred said the league would pursue the matter.

“But obviously we understand the emotion that surrounds that word [collusion] and we’ll proceed accordingly,” Manfred said.

The investigation was sparked by a Nov. 3 SNY article, which reported in part that, “Mets sources said that they did not plan to fight the Yankees this offseason for Judge.”

It added Cohen and Steinbrenner “enjoy a mutually respectful relationship, and do not expect to upend that with a high-profile bidding war.”

If true, the MLBPA believes it’s a possible violation of the collective bargaining agreement, which states “Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs,” with regard to the dispersal of information on player contracts.”

MLB is expected to request phone, text and email records of conversations between Cohen and Steinbrenner, as first reported by The Athletic.

One Yankees official at the meetings said there was no truth to the idea that the two owners spoke about Judge.