The Mets have some closure on their investigation into the team's workplace culture.
According to a memo sent to team employees on Monday, Mets owner Steve Cohen will be "phasing out" EVP and chief legal officer David Cohen and SVP of HR and diversity Holly Lindvall, to be replaced by a new team of Cohen's choosing.
Both will remain with the team during a transition period, but the jettisoning of the heads of the legal and human resources departments is one step being taken as the result of an audit of the team's workplace culture, which was conducted at Cohen's behest by the law firm of WilmerHale and will, per the email, result in changes "to ensure that our community and culture will always be safe, respectful, and inclusive."
The audit came after numerous allegations of misconduct and reporting of a "toxic" culture within Citi Field and the franchise, and according to Laura Albanese of Newsday, saw 82 current and former employees and 25 percent of the Mets' full-time staff interviewed.
According to the email, some of the changes the team will implement include regular town halls and Q&A sessions to increase transparency, as well as updates to policies that will ensure the new legal and human resources teams "respond to complaints in a timely fashion and to strengthen their processes for workplace investigations."
The franchise will also expand their anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, streamline the process for reporting concerns, and expand the "Non-Fraternization, Dating, and Romantic Relationships Policy" as it relates to people who work for the Mets, those who work with MLB and those who cover the team. And, Cohen himself stated there will be "zero tolerance" for retaliation.
"Going forward, all employees will have the opportunity to provide honest feedback about our managers and department leaders through upward evaluations," the email said, per Newsday. "I believe that management accountability is an important part of a productive and healthy culture."
In this calendar year alone, there have been numerous reports of toxic culture within the Mets, with former GM Jared Porter terminated barely a month into his tenure after it was discovered he sent multiple explicit texts, including an unsolicited photo of himself, to a female reporter in 2016 while he was with the Cubs.
The team also saw organizational hitting instructor Ryan Ellis quietly let go – quietly before reports surfaced in February – amidst investigations of inappropriate conduct, and last month, former manager Mickey Callaway was relieved of his duties as Angels pitching coach and placed on the ineligible list by MLB after investigation of his own misconduct in both Cleveland and New York.
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