Megdal: Either Fred Wilpon’s filings are lying about his debts or he is

So the news about his family’s personal finances would actually have been insignificant in terms of the only thing that matters, from a sports perspective, which is when the Mets can stop shrinking their payroll and start expanding it again.

But leaving that aside: what Wilpon said, even about his personal debt, is demonstrably false.

When he spoke on Wednesday, the Uniform Commercial Code filings included 39 separate filings of personal debt against Wilpon or his family. And those are just filings that include a Wilpon last name; many more are under Saul Katz, Wilpon’s brother-in-law and Sterling Equities partner, and his family.

The data in those filings had been updated through Monday, so it remained at least theoretically possible that Wilpon was telling a kind of truth, exuberantly trumpeting the clearing of personal debt while using that limited victory to suggest to reporters that his business debt had been retired, or to hope at least that they didn’t make the distinction.

But the U.C.C. database has now been updated through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, about 12 hours after Wilpon spoke. The same 39 personal, unlapsed debt filings from Wilpon and his family remain on file under Wilpon.