Best of the Mets on WFAN: Freddy Peralta's parting gift

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Anyhow, Freddy Peralta apparently recognizing that there was a real problem here, despite all the denials by everybody, which has now become comical, right? That there was nothing going on between Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. Actually, he was so bothered by what was going on between them, he called a private meeting. And he made the men sit down in a room, I guess just the three of them, and try to figure out their problems man to man, eye to eye.
Now, what's happened since that report came out is we find out Freddy Peralta doesn't deny it. He's like, yeah, I set up a meeting. It happened. I saw these two guys were not on the same page, whatever the issue was, whether it's a baseball issue, a personal issue, a family issue, whatever it was, they needed to get in a room and talk.
Francisco Lindor, while not talking about the content of the meeting, also acknowledged, yes, there was a moment when Freddy brought me and Juan Soto into a room together to hash out our problems.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:59)
He downplayed a little bit of how much impact it had, but he did say it happened.

**Craig Carton** (1:03)
Then Juan Soto, in a Spanish language interview, came out and said, never happened.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:09)
Yeah, no such meeting happened.

**Craig Carton** (1:12)
So I'm going to go with the majority. If two out of three people say, yes, there was a meeting, we might be making a bigger deal of it than it is, but yes, I recognize something was going on, I tried to nip it in the bud, and have these two guys, our two best players, hash it out, I think it happened.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:30)
Yeah, oh, it definitely happened. I don't know how you can say it didn't happen.

**Craig Carton** (1:33)
Right, Juan Soto says it never happened, Lindor says it happened, but it wasn't that big a deal. Freddy didn't talk about it much either, said, yes, it happened, I did it. That's leadership right there. That's the guy I recognize, and we got a problem.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:47)
And that's what jumps out at me is what kind of problem must this have been? Freddy Peralta, as now not being a Mets, was not under contract. This happened in June apparently. This is the first two and a half months of Freddy Peralta's Mets career.
He's not a Hall of Famer, he's not a veteran, he hasn't signed a long term contract anywhere yet, he hasn't had free agency. Freddy Peralta is a rental pitcher on a bad team with no connection to the Mets past this season, and he's the guy who recognized, man, this is so bad, I gotta say something?

**Craig Carton** (2:21)
Meaning the manager didn't, okay? No other player did.
Nobody went even to the GM or the owner, because I think Steve Cohen would have gotten involved, because there's two highest price guys and the faces of the franchise, to be fair. There's no doubt in my mind that if someone had brought this to Steve Cohen, he would have tried to have gotten involved, because he's a great relationship with Lindor. We know that. I'm assuming a decent one with Soto, but a great one with Lindor. Right? He loves Francisco Lindor.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:53)
Loves him.

**Craig Carton** (2:54)
So it shows you again. Look, Mendoza is a good guy and all that.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:57)
People just won't...

**Craig Carton** (2:58)
He did not have his finger on the pulse, and if you knew something was going on, he didn't do anything to make it better.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:03)
That's fair, but it's not like they started winning in June either.

**Craig Carton** (3:06)
Correct.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:07)
It's not like it's dramatically changed the team. I think that's probably it's just two veteran guys that most people felt like they'll figure it out.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:15)
Maybe, or it's none of my business, because it's personal.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:17)
It's none of my business.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:18)
That's the other thing.

**Craig Carton** (3:19)
It's a baseball issue.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:21)
That's different.

**Craig Carton** (3:21)
I'm thinking of Marcus Simeon. Marcus Simeon was a team captain in Texas with the Rangers. He's a very well-respected, well-regarded player. Obviously, he's been a disaster here, but he's a very well-thought-of man.
It makes me think if it's a baseball issue, you're selfish. You're not willing to bunt or hit behind the runner. I'm making stuff up.
I think a guy like Simeon does get involved because he's a track record of being a captain and he's well-respected, okay? Which makes me think all the stories out there, not so much between Soto and Elora, that were based on personal things or family things, but it was more personal than baseball.