MLB

METS SHIFT FALL LEAGUE

CHICAGO — Adding to the questions about their post-Bernie Madoff financial health, the Mets have quietly shifted their fall instructional league in a cost-saving maneuver.

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Former Mets GM Jim Duquette, now a baseball analyst for Sirius XM Radio, reported yesterday afternoon the Mets had killed their fall league entirely as a way to save the roughly $300,000 it costs teams to conduct a usual 4-to-5 week program. But the Mets released a statement late last night saying that, rather than dissolve the league, they have moved the 75 players in it to their Dominican Republic academy because so many other clubs have left south Florida.

“We will have more opportunities [in the Dominican] to have competition against opposing teams that have training facilities nearby,” the team said in the statement.

The Mets will still save about $250,000 by moving the instructional league to the Dominican because of much cheaper living expenses on the island.