Major League Baseball is investigating a series of racist messages sent by social media to Cubs pitcher Carl Edwards Jr., according to The Athletic.
The repeated attacks on Instagram targeted Edwards, one of less than 8 percent of African-American players on big league rosters to open this season, for his race. While fans often vent their frustrations about sports on social media, the messages sent to Edwards were “completely beyond normal fan frustration,” according to his agent, Lee Long of the Ballengee Group.
An MLB spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic that an investigation is ongoing: “We are aware of the situation. We have a team that works with social-media companies to take appropriate actions in situations like this.”
Edwards, 27, became one of the Cubs’ key relievers in recent years, but he was recently demoted to Class AAA Iowa due to his struggles on the mound.
He had worked on tweaking his delivery with a hesitation move this spring, only for MLB to deem it illegal just after the start of the season. With Iowa, he’s allowed just two hits and one run in four innings of work so far.
While it’s unclear how MLB’s investigation will unfold, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein wrote a statement provided to The Athletic supporting the league’s effort.
“We were shocked by the racist, profanity-laced social media message sent to Carl Edwards Jr. earlier this month,” Epstein wrote. “We vehemently condemn the content of the message and are supporting Major League Baseball’s investigation to identify the person responsible.
“In a sport that celebrates diversity and unites people from all backgrounds, we are appalled anyone claiming to be a fan would send divisive and bigoted insults to a player. Whether spoken, posted or published, this type of reprehensible language and views cannot be tolerated in our game or society.”
The Cubs acquired Edwards Jr. in 2013 as part of the trade sending Matt Garza to the Rangers. He was originally selected in the 48th round of the 2011 MLB Draft and made his big league debut in 2015.
