CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Phillies pitcher Jose Mesa is being investigated by the commissioner's office for his threats against Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel.

	Vizquel

	Mesa

Close friends as teammates in Cleveland from 1992 to '98, Mesa and Vizquel have had tense relations since the shortstop's autobiography was published last year. They were on the same field Tuesday, but Vizquel was out of the game when Mesa entered in the eighth inning.

"If I face him, I'll hit him," Mesa told Bucks County Courier Times. "I won't try to hit him in the head, but I'll hit him. And if he charges me, I'll kill him."

Those remarks prompted the inquiry by Bob Watson, vice president for on-field operations in the commissioner's office.

"We're looking into it," Watson said Tuesday night. "I don't know how long this will take because I don't have all the facts right now."

Asked if he can remember one player threatening another, Watson said, "I'm sure this happened back in the day when Jim Bouton wrote 'Ball Four,' but it wasn't covered in the press like it is now."

Last year, Mesa was fined $500 after hitting Vizquel in the middle of the back during a June game in Cleveland.

Mesa will not be punished by the Phillies.

"This clearly is a well-documented issue between the two guys," Phillies general manager Ed Wade said. "The best way to avoid it is not to provide a setting in which it can happen."

The Phillies and Indians don't face each other again this spring and won't play in the regular season.