It appears as though the Mets will not be going to Major League Baseball to lodge a complaint about the Yankees’ alleged whistling during their weekend series at Citi Field.
“We don’t need to tell anything to MLB,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “We all think it’s fair game. But if you get caught, you send a message, and I think the guys did it on the field verbally, and that was it.”
Tempers flared during Sunday night’s series finale after Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor — who hit three home runs in the victory — made a whistling motion at Gleyber Torres before jawing at the Yankees’ bench while rounding the bases in the sixth inning.
Giancarlo Stanton, who homered later in the evening, took offense to it and made sure to stop and go at Lindor, prompting the benches to clear.
Multiple members of the Mets said they heard whistling from the Yankees’ dugout beginning on Saturday night when Taijuan Walker was thumped for five runs in the second inning.
Yankees pitcher Wandy Peralta was accused of whistling before pitches were thrown to alert the batter as it was believed that Walker was tipping his pitches. Walker responded by retiring the next 13 Yankees he faced after the proper adjustments were made.
If the Yankees were simply whistling to their batters to alert what pitch was coming based on a pitcher tipping his hand, that’s completely legal. What would make it illegal is if the Yankees used technology to steal the sign and then Peralta relayed those messages through whistling — as seen in MLB’s findings regarding the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal from 2017.
“Whatever it was, there’s nothing other than a whistle,” Rojas said. “Sometimes if you catch something like this, players can find it disrespectful, teams can find it disrespectful, and maybe send a message.”
If anything, it adds just another dimension to a Subway Series rivalry that could use a little more on-field animosity.
