The New York Mets fired hitting coordinator Ryan Ellis on Jan. 22 after “new information came to light” about inappropriate conduct Ellis partook in as far back as 2018 – but no one really knew Ellis was let go until Britt Ghiroli, Ken Rosenthal, and Katie Strang broke the news in The Athletic earlier this week.
The Mets put out a statement about their handling of the situation, but when Ghiroli joined Moose & Maggie on WFAN on Wednesday to discuss the report, she gave a deeper look into just how much of a “slap on the wrist” Ellis got in 2018.
“This woman said, ‘he was acting inappropriately to me and two others, that’s why I came forward,’ and Mets HR basically said they needed more proof, more women to make it a stronger case,” Ghiroli said. “Two more came forward to make it official on the record in 2018, and he was put on probation and got his hand slapped a little bit – but all three of those women left the Mets, and Ryan Ellis, by all accounts, kept getting promoted.”
Ellis’ dismissal came three days after the Mets fired recently-hired GM Jared Porter, terminating Porter 37 days into his tenure after his own inappropriate conduct came to light. That conduct began years earlier while Porter worked in another organization, but according to Ghiroli, Ellis had been acting inappropriately on the Mets’ watch since well before the first allegations.
“This had been going on since at least 2016 according to one account, and one of the women had been victimized and had seen it with others,” Ghiroli said. “They told her you need more proof, and the other two women came forward quickly, because the whole investigation was wrapped up in two weeks and that was the last we heard of this until Porter was fired. A few days later Ellis was fired, quietly – until the story came out.”
That, she notes, is a huge problem baseball as a whole needs to look into.
“The first woman who complained told her supervisor, who then contacted HR and legal, so people knew,” Ghiroli said. “People always say when these stores come out, because people rarely go through HR to file complaints, and people say ‘oh, that’s what HR is for.’ But you see a scenario like this where three women did just that, and it took three years and Jared porter coming out for this to be reopened and Ellis to get fired.”
So how did the Ellis situation come back into view, leading to his dismissal?
“HR is one of the departments that is a holdover from the previous regime, so the day Porter was let go, there were two schools of thought – did another former employee tell them they had more info on Ellis, or did someone internally say this Porter stuff was similar to something we had a couple years ago and it was re-opened that way?” Ghiroli said. “We don’t know, but we do know that when Ellis was let go, it wasn’t a case of what happened in 2018, it was whatever they found now, they felt violated their misconduct rules.”
Within that thought about internal discussions, Ghiroli noted that the women who spoke up were never followed up on, and had no idea Ellis was fired.
“In speaking to women who have been in similar situations, there seems to be this great wave of shame when you come forward and you’re never kept abreast of punishment, and this guy just got to quietly go away,” Ghiroli said. “It’s great that he’s out of baseball, but why did you not believe these three women three years ago? When you have three women coming forward, you have to take that seriously; there has to be a zero tolerance policy, not a slap on the wrist and a second chance, and if this story doesn’t come out and these women don’t come forward, he latches on somewhere else and no one is the wiser.”
That, she says, is why people take issue with the vetting processes of candidates, something the Mets noted after Porter’s dismissal they have to be better with.
“These women already came forward once, and no one did anything. One of these women was in tears. Firing them is a great idea, but let’s make a path where there’s no room for this in any org in baseball; let’s call them out, and make sure everyone knows this is not ok.
Moose & Maggie turned the discussion to how Ghiroli was also a key figure in the reveal of Mickey Callaway allegations, to which Ghiroli revealed that “I was told the Angels front office wanted to fire him, but in California, there are a lot of legal things you have to consider” – noting also that the Angels are currently involved in two other lawsuits surrounding team issues, so they’re being careful.
She doesn’t see Callaway returning as Angels pitching coach, but the way the situation is unfolding is another unfortunate reminder of the uphill battle she, and other women in media, are facing.
“This is indicative of the battle women face for men having real consequences for these actions, and anybody will tell you that this goes on in almost every organization,” Ghiroli said. “The Mets aren’t responsible for Mickey Callaway, this was going on in Cleveland as well, but Porter really opened a vein, and this is not the end of it. The pattern is the same: the women leave the organization or baseball as a whole, and the man goes about his career and often gets promoted – but hopefully, we can exhaust the old cases, get these people out of baseball, and make front offices aware and start to believe women.”
Bringing some levity to the moment, Ghiroli then remembered how her own path started on what she called “the creep beat,” and the importance of this work taking precedence over baseball news.
“When I wrote about my experience, my inbox was flooded with people sharing theirs, and it has really led to a lot of these stories. The funny thing is, I got promoted last month to write about baseball, and I feel like I’ve been on the creep beat ever since,” she said. “I’d rather be talking to you about Spring Training, but this exhaustive, important work needs to be told, and I fear that if we’re not doing it, who else is?”
Listen to Ghiroli’s entire segment on Moose & Maggie below!
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