ANAHEIM, Calif. — Pitching coach Mickey Callaway has been suspended by the Los Angeles Angels after allegations of inappropriate behavior toward several women who work in sports media.
The Angels announced their decision Tuesday, a day after the allegations against the former New York Mets manager appeared in a report by The Athletic.
The team “will work closely with MLB to conduct a full investigation,” Angels spokesperson Marie Garvey said.
Callaway joined the Angels in October 2019, three weeks after he was fired by the Mets following two years in charge. Before that, the former major league pitcher spent five seasons as the Cleveland Indians’ pitching coach.
The five women who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity gave detailed accounts of multiple instances of aggressive, inappropriate acts by Callaway over five years while he was employed by three teams.
Callaway sent uninvited and sometimes unanswered messages to the women via email, text or social media and asked one to send nude photos in return, according to the report. He often commented on their appearance in a way that made them uncomfortable and on one occasion “thrust his crotch near the face of a reporter” while she interviewed him.
Another time, he told one of the women he’d share information about the Mets if she got drunk with him, the report said. More than one woman received a shirtless selfie or several from him, and one said he massaged her shoulders in the dugout when he thought nobody was watching, according to the report.
Two of the women said they had been warned about Callaway’s behavior by fellow media members and others in baseball, The Athletic said.
The report came two weeks after ESPN detailed sexually explicit, uninvited text messages and images sent by former Mets general manager Jared Porter to a female reporter in 2016 when he was working for the Cubs in their front office. Porter was fired by the Mets the following morning, and Major League Baseball planned to investigate him.
Mets President Sandy Alderson, who hired Porter, was GM of the team when Callaway was hired.
