Report: MLB investigating Mets, Yankees over improper Aaron Judge communication

Major League Baseball is looking into whether or not the New York Yankees and New York Mets have had improper communication regarding free agent outfielder Aaron Judge, according to a report from the Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. 

The improper communication isn't necessarily related to tampering, but whether or not the Mets would avoid getting into a bidding war over a personal relationship involving the two teams' owners. 

In early November the Mets' television network published an article reporting the team would not be willing to get into a bidding war for the superstar free agent because Mets owner Steve Cohen and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner have a "mutually respectful relationship." Because of that, the two would reportedly not want to damage their relationship in a free-agent bidding war.

That comment caught the attention of the MLBPA, which has asked the league to investigate. 

It is not hard to see why the player's union would have a problem with that as it is essentially a form of collusion. 

Judge is one of the top-three players in baseball and is coming off one of the best offensive seasons in major league history. He is one of the biggest free agents to ever hit the open market and should prompt a major bidding war for his services. 

The Mets, one of the best teams in the league backed by a deep-pocketed owner, would figure to be one of the teams involved in that bidding war. 

Them willingly removing themselves from that because of a personal relationship with the Yankees' owner could play a role in reducing Judge's value in free agency. That is not something the Union (or Judge) would have any interest in. 

Rosenthal notes that there were three separate occasions in the 1980s where independent arbitrators found that owners worked together to collectively avoid bidding on free agents. That resulted in the league paying the players a collective amount of $230 million. There were also collusion allegations in the early 2000s that resulted in $12 million in payments.