Several New York Mets employees say their complaints about misconduct at work have not been addressed, according to a report by The Athletic.
The report also details allegations of misconduct or sexual harassment by David Newman – Mets’ chief marketing, content and communications officer, who was recruited by the team last year – and former marketing staff Joe DeVito.
More than a dozen people, men and women, told The Athletic that Holly Lindvall, senior vice president of human resources and diversity at Mets, was aware of complaints about language harassment and actions without action against the perpetrators. included sexist comments by former owner Jeff Wilpon and former manager Mickey Callaway. People told The Athletic that they feel that Lindvall would rather keep the property happy than investigate their complaints.
“It was clear that her interest was to protect the property and the directors and not the office as a whole,” a former employee told The Athletic. “You couldn’t go to HR to feel protected, comfortable, anything.”
Newman, who is accused of making inappropriate comments about women’s appearances while on the team from 2005 to 2018, told The Athletic that he did not remember making such comments. Newman was reinstated in his current position in November.
DeVito allegedly sent inappropriate text messages to women and gave a woman an unwanted rub. He resigned in March, saying he wanted to reevaluate his career, but told The Athletic in an email that “he will not disprove the allegations you hear with a response, except that he said I’ve always tried to be a gentleman with everyone I work with and am personally involved with. “
Team president Sandy Alderson, who hired Newman, told The Athletic that portraying the way the Mets handled the allegations was unfair.
“Let me try to say a point as strong as I can, OK? Not every case where men and women are involved in the workplace is a capital crime, OK? Every time something happens, it doesn’t mean that someone Alderson told The Athletic. “There are a lot of intermediate steps that can be taken and we have done that in a variety of different cases. And we have included the death penalty as a consequence in some cases, but not every case reaches the level of execution. And I honestly think that it happens with these articles. “
The allegations are part of a continuing pattern of inappropriate behavior within the Mets organization. Other people named in the previous allegations include former CEO Jared Porter, who was fired in January for explicit texts and images sent to a reporter; former performance coordinator Ryan Ellis, who was fired in January for naughty comments; and Callaway, who was accused of sending inappropriate text messages, among other actions.
Lindvall defended the way the Mets handled complaints.
“We have always had a strict policy that prohibits harassment and discrimination in the workplace and we have thoroughly and objectively investigated any complaints that have been brought to our attention,” Lindvall wrote in an email to The Athletic. “If our investigation has confirmed that misconduct has taken place, we have always taken prompt and appropriate action to remedy it.”
In March, owner Steve Cohen announced in a full-team email that a law firm had been hired to investigate the Mets workplace culture, focusing on issues of sexual harassment, misconduct and discrimination. A copy of that email was previously obtained by The Athletic.