More allegations of misconduct in the New York Mets organization adds to picture of an unacceptable work environment.
On Friday morning, Katie Strang and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic released another article about the toxic environment around and inside the New York Mets organization.
The new report goes beyond the Jared Porter and Mickey Callaway situations that came to light late last year. This new story focuses on the team’s former Executive Producer of Content and Marketing Joe DiVito and his boss, David Newman, who was the Mets’ Chief Marketing, Content, and Communications officer.
DiVito reportdly made advancements towards multiple women, including sending texts that said: “I’ve barely hit on you. So that counts for something.” One text message included a reference to former manager Mickey Callaway’s behavior saying “… And I’m not being Mickey right?” He was also accused of giving one female employee a backrub that was not warranted by the recipient.
DiVito left the organization on March 8th of this year, citing that “it’s time for me to take a step back and assess what next steps should be in my life, and in my career, moving forward”.
Newman, on the other hand, was known as a toxic person within the Mets organization. Hired in 2005, Newman worked for the Mets until 2018. Once the ownership changed hands, team President Sandy Alderson decided he wanted to bring Newman back.
According to the report from The Athletic, multiple women suggested to Alderson that it was not a good idea to bring Newman back, citing past issues with other female employees. Alderson seemingly ignored those comments and hired him back anyway,
In an interview, Alderson criticized the way The Athletic characterized the way the Mets as an organization handled allegations of events that occurred in the work place, where he said:
“Let me try to make a point as strongly as I can, OK? Not every instance involving men, women in the workplace is a capital offense, OK? Every time something happens, it doesn’t mean somebody has to be fired,” Alderson said. “There are a lot of intermediate steps that can be taken and we’ve done that in a variety of different cases. And have included capital punishment as a consequence in some cases, but not every case rises to the level of execution. And that’s what honestly I think is happening with these articles (in The Athletic). People are getting executed, including women, by the way, for reasons that are unjustifiable.”
So, with this newest set of allegations, where does the team go from here?
When Steve Cohen first took the reigns as the owner of the Mets officially last October, he preached transparency, and when the allegations regarding Jared Porter rose, he fired him swiftly the morning after.
Along with Alderson, Cohen also announced that they have launched an investigation on workplace misconduct, which is being conducted by lawyers not affiliated with the organization.
The Callaway and Ellis situations did not happen under Alderson’s watch. And he worked with Cohen to handle the Porter situation as quickly as they could. But the growing list of issues creates an enduring problem for the Mets.
The Alderson quote given to The Athletic proves that he takes great offense to people questioning matters of this type of issue.
Indeed, he re-hired Newman against the voiced concerns of multiple female employees. In doing so, Alderson implicates himself as part of the problem – not working towards a solution.
If Cohen truly believes in transparency and handling allegations the right way, he must fire Alderson.
