Major League Baseball updated its code of conduct on harassment and discrimination and also established an anonymous line of advice following recent stories detailing alleged harassment by New York Mets-fired CEO Jared Porter and Los Angeles Angels coach Mickey Callaway is currently suspended.
The code of conduct, led by new MLB chief and culture officer Michele Meyer-Shipp, promises that “all MLB and club staff will be held accountable for inappropriate behavior, regardless of seniority, rank or stature,” according to documents obtained. by ESPN on Tuesday.
In a statement, MLB said it is “committed to ensuring that all people working in and around the game are received and treated equally, with dignity, respect and professionalism. To achieve this goal, MLB and its clubs “They will continue to work to create environments in which people feel safe and accepted – and when they don’t, they feel comfortable speaking without fear of recrimination, retaliation or exclusion.”
MLB’s anonymous hotline, called “Speak Up,” will be operated by an external third party, and its contents will be investigated by either the relevant team or the commissioner’s office, depending on the nature of the indictment. A flyer that will be displayed on the walls of every major league club this season presents three steps for those with information about sexual misconduct and states that “if wrongdoing is found, remedial action will be taken. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, remedial measures may take the form of a warning, suspension, termination of employment or any other measures available to a club or the commissioner. “
The league also sent a note to teams that need training against harassment and discrimination, which must be completed before the end of March by the top five employees in baseball operations and the top five employees in the business, confirmed a ESPN source. He also encouraged teams to adopt annual training in a similar format for all non-player staff; the teams are already organizing seminars for sexual harassment and domestic violence for major league players in every spring training. The league has previously asked teams to follow anti-harassment and discrimination training at least once every three years from 2018 to 2020, but did not specify senior management and did not establish a general approach to education.
On January 18, ESPN reported on a series of explicit, unsolicited text messages that Porter sent to a reporter in 2016 while working for the Chicago Cubs, one of which included a picture of an erect penis. Porter acknowledged the text messages and was fired the next day by the Mets.
Two weeks later, The Athletic published a report in which five women in the sports media accused Callaway of misconduct, which included sending shirtless photos, a request for nude images and other advances, which which led the angels to suspend him amid an ongoing investigation. Callaway, a source said, initially denied any wrongdoing.
Several teams – most notably the Mets, Cleveland Indians and Cubs, who had previously hired either Porter, Callaway, or both – worked through ways to update their verification process and install new protocols following these reports.
Meyer-Shipp, who was hired in August after taking over as head of diversity and inclusion at accounting firm KPMG, is also reviewing the “Selig Rule” which required teams to consider minorities for prominent positions.
The new code of conduct covers inclusion, acceptance and equality, defines harassment and discrimination, and encourages league employees to report obscene behavior. The flyer states that reports of misconduct “will be kept as confidential as possible to conduct a thorough investigation and permitted by law” and called the retaliation against those complaints “a serious breach”.
“Harassment and discrimination have no place in Major League Baseball,” the league said as part of its statement. “We are grateful for the courage of the women who shared their stories and we believe that open dialogue is an important role in progress. We must work to build a uniform playing field for all involved in our game.”
Athletic first reported on the league’s new policies.