Francona: No one 'deliberately covered up' Callaway allegations

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Terry Francona: 'No one has deliberately covered up' allegations against Mickey Callaway

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 3/2/21

The Athletic dropped another bombshell report regarding former Cleveland Indians pitching coach and former New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway on Tuesday and said that Cleveland team president Chris Antonetti, general manager Mike Chernoff and manager Terry Francona addressed Callaway's alleged sexually inappropriate behavior in 2017 even though Antonetti said on Feb. 4: "There had never been any complaints against Mickey in his time with us, either to me or to our human resources department or other leaders."

Most recently, Callaway was serving as the active Los Angeles Angels pitching coach until that club suspended him in early February amid allegations of inappropriate behavior from at least five women who work in sports media.

Per Cleveland's Fox 8, Francona responded to the new report on Tuesday afternoon:

Terry Francona "no one has deliberately covered up for anyone" regarding The Athletic report / the team was aware of Mickey Callaways behavior. He said the team will be releasing a statement, and at appropriate time he will address it. @Indians @fox8news
— .@JohnTelich8 (@JohnTelich8) March 2, 2021

"Out of respect to that and to the Major League Baseball investigation right now is just not the right time to respond to some of the questions I’m sure you have," the 61-year-old Francona explained. "I do hope at some point we are able to because I think we need to."

Nick Francona, Terry's son, shared his thoughts on The Athletic's piece before the manager's press conference:

This isn’t easy, but it needs to be said. Here is my statement: https://t.co/g90fYnptH6 pic.twitter.com/hAR8tc02Zz
— Nick Francona (@NickFrancona) March 2, 2021

"I love all my children unconditionally," Terry Francona said of Nick's written post, according to ESPN. "As you can imagine, that's a very difficult thing to see. So to deal with it publicly is hurtful."

Callaway worked for Cleveland from 2010 to 2017 and was the club's pitching coach from 2013 through 2017. He was then with the Mets the following two seasons.

Many in baseball circles assume Callaway's MLB career is finished, and Tuesday's developments suggest Cleveland may also have to clean house. That, theoretically, would involve the franchise parting ways with Francona, a two-time American League Manager of the Year who guided Cleveland to a World Series appearance in 2016.

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