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On strictly baseball terms, there’s not much that’s remarkable about the Red Sox’ starting pitcher on Thursday. Matt Dermody is a 32-year-old journeyman who has pitched just 27.1 innings at the major league level in his career, spending a lot more time bouncing around the minors while also making stops in Japan and South Korea.
What is notable about Dermody, however, is a homophobic tweet he posted and then deleted in June 2021, during Pride Month.
“#PrideMonth. Homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will go to hell,” Dermody tweeted. “This is not my opinion, but the #Truth. Read 1 Corinthians 6:9. May we all examine our hearts, ask Jesus to forgive us and repent of all our sins. I love you all in Christ Jesus!”
On Wednesday, Red Sox management addressed that tweet in a story from MassLive’s Sean McAdam. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said that the team was not aware of the tweet when they signed Dermody to a minor league deal in January, but that they later learned about it during spring training and met with Dermody to discuss it then.
“It’s important to us that he had taken the tweet down and important why he had done it,” Bloom told McAdam. “I talked to him personally about that and what he told me was that it really came down to two things. One, he didn’t realize that his words would be hurtful and he didn’t want to hurt anybody and when he realized that they were, he took (the post) down.
“He also understood that it’s not the right use of his platform. He knows he made a mistake tweeting that. That’s why he took it down. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that we endorse anything he said or anything he believes. But the fact of the matter is, if we’re committed to creating an (inclusive) environment, it’s not right for us to police what people believe.
“We do need to expect that everybody here is going to be committed to creating an inclusive and safe environment and so understanding why he had taken the tweet down and that his words were hurtful, and knowing that he doesn’t want to hurt anybody and that he believes in a safe environment, was important here.”
The Saitama Seibu Lions, the Japanese team Dermody was pitching for at the time, issued a public apology for the tweet after it was deleted.
Bloom said that the Red Sox did consider terminating Dermody’s contract once they found out about the tweet, but decided not to after talking to him about it.
Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy also weighed in via a statement to MassLive:
“What Matt posted in 2021 was hurtful — and we addressed this with him when we learned about it after he joined the Red Sox in 2023,” Kennedy said. “Matt, along with all our minor leaguers, went through our mandatory anti-discrimination and harassment prevention training in March. We cannot dictate the religious beliefs or political views of our players and employees, but we do require they treat people in our organization and ballpark with respect and professionalism.”
Dermody is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in nine games (eight starts) for Triple-A Worcester this season. Thursday will be his first major league start, with his previous 30 big-league appearances all coming in relief. The Red Sox are in need of a spot starter because of Chris Sale’s injury and other rotation shuffling.
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