Bruce Maxwell, Mets Agree to Minors Contract; 1st MLB Player to Kneel for Anthem

Catcher Bruce Maxwell, who notably became the first Major League Baseball player to kneel during the national anthem as a means of protesting systemic racism and police brutality in 2017 when he was a member of the Oakland Athletics, signed with the New York Mets on Wednesday. 

Manny Randhawa of MLB.com reported the news, noting the 29-year-old was one of 11 players the Mets signed to a minor league deal.

The Associated Press reported Maxwell is expected to participate in major league spring training.

Maxwell played for the Athletics from 2016 through 2018 and had a .240/.314/.347 slash line with five home runs and 42 RBI during that time span.

The AP noted he spent the 2019 campaign with Mexico's Acereros de Monclova and signed a minor league contract with the Mets for 2020 in July. He spent time at the team's alternate training site in Brooklyn after signing that deal.

While Colin Kaepernick generated the most headlines for kneeling during the national anthem as a means of protest, Maxwell did the same on the baseball side. Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since opting out of his deal following the 2016 season.

Maxwell said MLB did not support him when he took a knee while also criticizing the league for waiting much longer than other professional sports leagues to issue a statement following the police killing of George Floyd that sparked worldwide protests. 

"Knock me if you want, but I think MLB finally came out and said something because so many people were hounding them to say something," he said on the A's Plus podcast in June, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. "It doesn't shock me they were the last sport to say something. When I did my thing, my team supported me at the time, but MLB didn't really back me."