Mets' Luis Rojas on Ryan Ellis: 'Those Misconducts, They're Just Unacceptable'

New York Mets manager Luis Rojas said the behavior of former hitting performance coordinator Ryan Ellis was "unacceptable" but he never personally witnessed any harassment. 

"My relationship with Ryan, knowing him for years here in the Mets organization, has been strictly baseball," Rojas said, per Jake Seiner of the Associated Press. "That's what we had as far as conversations. … Those misconducts, they're just unacceptable. We should have a safe environment to work in, a safe workplace."

On Wednesday, Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that in 2018 three female Mets employees told Aubrey Wechsler, who was then the team's employee relations manager, that Ellis made a number of lewd and sexually suggestive comments.

Ellis was the minor league hitting coordinator at the time.

He was not fired until January 2021 after the dismissal of general manager Jared Porter. 

The Mets provided Ghiroli and Rosenthal with a statement explaining they underwent an organizational review following the firing of Porter and determined they would also fire Ellis:

"On January 19 of this year, following the termination of Jared Porter, we received new information regarding conduct of the disciplined employee in the 2017-2018 timeframe. We immediately commenced a new investigation and terminated the employee on January 22 for violating company policy and failure to meet the Mets' standards for professionalism and personal conduct."

The Mets said they received a complaint of inappropriate conduct by Ellis in 2018 and, after an investigation, put him on probation and ordered him to get counseling. The team said it did not get any further complaints about Ellis until it received "new information" in January.

Mina Kimes and Jeff Passan of ESPN reported on Jan. 18 that Porter sent "explicit, unsolicited texts and images" to a female reporter when he was with the Chicago Cubs front office. At one point, he sent 62 consecutive unanswered text messages, one of which was an image of a naked, erect penis. 

As for Ellis and Rojas, Seiner noted the former was hired as a minor league coach in 2006. Rojas joined the Mets the following year as a manager of their Dominican Summer League team.

They each remained with the organization for years, and Rojas became the manager in January 2020 after Carlos Beltran was fired. Ellis joined the major league team last year when hitting coach Chili Davis opted out of the shortened 2020 campaign.