In February 2021, the Mets acquired outfielder Khalil Lee from the Kansas City Royals. The outfielder played in 102 games for Syracuse last season. He hit .274 with 14 home runs and 37 RBI. During that season, domestic violence charges were filed against him. Syracuse.com was all over it.
Major League Baseball has strict rules about domestic violence cases, and they were investigating this in February of 2023. Even without criminal charges, MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred could take action, and yet he hasn’t? Was he hoping the Mets would?
This happened while playing for Syracuse and representing the Mets. So the Mets invited Lee to Spring Training, and he missed his court date, which angered the Judge presiding over the case. If Lee misses the April 11th court date, he could be arrested.
There were quite a few tweets about this when the Syracuse Mets casually posted their Opening Day lineup. Could they be this tone-deaf?
Is this the message you want to send to that city and also to Mets fans around the country? The answer should be obvious, and yet here we are.
A lot of Mets fans thought Lee was out of the organization or at best, on administrative leave while MLB investigates the case. But now, he’s the starting right fielder, and that is a horrible look for the Mets. I wonder how people in Syracuse feel. Cities that have baseball teams look up to those teams, especially when you bring kids to a game. These charges are bad enough that this player shouldn’t be on the team while due process is going on, and after that, the Mets should cut him.
Here was a tweet that sums up this situation well:
So we’re just going business as usual with Khalil Lee? https://t.co/9WxHMJe6QX
— Jon (@JonAtTheBar) March 31, 2023
Wikipedia has alarming numbers about domestic violence in the United States:
Between 960,000 and 3,000,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported each year, while many other incidents go unreported. It is estimated that more than ten million people experience domestic violence in the U.S. each year.
Sadly, these numbers are much worse than I could ever imagine. I’m a sports guy, but I also care about people. Letting these kinds of situations slip sends a bad message to all.
Let’s put pressure on the Mets and major league baseball to re-look at this situation. The Mets can fix this, and MLB has to report their finding, so let’s see what’s taken so long.
Actions speak louder than words.
