UPDATE: After Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen was originally heard on a hot mic venting his frustrations towards MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's plan on staging an on-field demonstration that would include players leaving the field for an hour, and then coming back to the finish the game, Van Wagenen would later make a statement clarifying that the Mets and Marlins walking off the field at 7:10 pm and resuming play at 8:10 p.m. was Met's owner Jeff Wilpon's idea, NOT Rob Manfred's.
Van Wagenen said in his statement:
“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.”
Thursday's Mets vs. Marlins game was ultimately cancelled after the players took the field, held a moment of silence, and then walked off the field together in protest.
Here is the original transcript from the hot mic video.
Brodie Van Wagenen: “Baseball’s trying to come up with a solution to say, you know what would be super powerful – three of us here, can’t leave this room – you know what would be really great: if you just have ‘em all take the field, then they leave the field and then they come back and play at 8:10. And I was like, ‘What?’”
Unidentified voice: “Who said that?”
Van Wagenen: “Rob. And with Jeff, scheduling’s gonna be a nightmare, and there’s so much at stake. And I said: ‘Jeff, that’s not happening.’”
Unidentified voice: “They’re not dealing with reality.”
Van Wagenen: “They’re not playing. But that’s Rob’s instinct. And Rob – exactly what you and I were talking about – at leadership level he doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it. Anyway, we’re waiting – Jeff wants to hear, as soon as we hear from the Marlins, whatever we do we need to coordinate with the Marlins. So as soon as Conforto hears from Rojas – Miguel Rojas – let me know because Jeff is standing by for that call.”
(Original story was UPDATED at top of page) New York Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen was caught on a hot mic Thursday afternoon showing some revealing frustrations towards MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, and his plan on a public on-field response to the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin.
A handful of teams had already called off games on Wednesday and Thursday night as a form of unified protest across major sports, but apparently Manfred wanted Mets players to take the field around game time on Thursday night, and then symbolically leave the field at the very start of the game at 7:10pm, only to come back an hour later at 8:10pm and resume the game.
With COVID-19 already postponing dozens of games the last month, and with plans of a postseason still planned for early October, Major League Baseball can likely not afford to miss any more games, with Van Wagenen making allusions to that in the audio.
Van Wagenen was heard in the audio saying that Manfred ‘at leadership level doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it.’