CLEVELAND – Indians baseball operations president Chris Antonetti said on Wednesday that he could not comment on his earlier remarks about Mickey Callaway’s conduct due to the ongoing Major League Baseball investigation into sexual harassment allegations against the former -team pitcher of the team.
Antonetti joined Terry Francona for the availability of Zoom from the manager of the training camp in Arizona, the day after a story by The Athletic said that several former Indian employees had come forward last month to say that the team’s board was aware of Callaway’s behavior.
Unidentified officials responded to Antonetti’s public comments on February 4 that he did not know about Callaway’s obscene actions until he read an earlier Athletic story.
At the time, Antonetti said that “there were never any complaints against Mickey in his time with us, either for me or for our human resources department or other leaders”
Antonetti was asked on Wednesday whether he kept his previous comments.
“I really want to answer that,” he said. “At the moment I am not succeeding. The last time we spoke, the investigation had not yet started, so I had more freedom with what I was able to share. With the investigation underway, the most important thing is that the investigation is able to maintain its integrity , its meticulousness, its impartiality.
“And I don’t want to do anything that could harm this investigation. So importantly, we are eager to learn what this investigation reveals so that we can be sure that we will cover everything in its entirety and not in parts.”
On Tuesday, Francona said there was no deliberate attempt to cover up Callaway, who was with the Cleveland team from 2010 to 2017 – serving as pitching coach for five years – before being hired as manager of the New York Mets.
Callaway was suspended as a pitch trainer for the Los Angeles Angels, pending the outcome of the MLB investigation.
Antonetti said it should have been him who delivered the team’s message on Tuesday, not Francona. He reiterated that the team is “fully cooperating with the investigation”.
In the most recent story, the husband of a woman who had an extramarital affair with Callaway contacted the Cleveland team several times to complain about her behavior in 2017. Callaway told The Athletic that “any relationship in which I was engaged was consensual and my conduct was in no way intended to be disrespectful to the women involved. ″
A Cleveland official told The Athletic that Callaway’s behavior was “the organization’s worst-kept secret”.
Antonetti, who has been with the Cleveland organization since 1999, said the team has already taken steps to “build an inclusive culture”.