The Boston Red Sox released former third-round draft pick Brett Netzer after he posted on Twitter a series of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Semitic tweets, several of which targeted the team’s Jewish chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
“Chaim bloom is a bad actor. dude went to hebrew school and studied the torah growing up but sold his soul to the sodom and race groups. good thing he is good at whatever he does in baseball,” Netzer, 25, wrote in one of many tweets attacking Bloom, according to CBS News. He wrote in another message, “is chaim bloom even jewish?? highly doubtful.” He also said, “bloom is a hypocrite and an embarrassment to any torah-following jew.”
Netzer additionally posted tweets attacking black and transgender people. When a Twitter user asked if Netzer’s account was hacked, the athlete responded, “not hacked.”
He tweeted in a reply to another Twitter user, “I am a racist. I do sometimes make assumptions based on a person’s race/ethnicity/culture. Glad that is out of the way.” His Twitter account has since been deleted.
Netzer was selected by the Red Sox in the third round of the 2017 draft out of UNC Charlotte. He last played in 2019 — the 2020 minor league season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and he spent the entire 2021 season on the restricted list for unknown reasons, CBS News reported.
Red Sox minor leaguer Brandon Celluci condemned Netzer’s comments in a Twitter post on Saturday.
“It’s safe to say Red Sox fans have been shocked by the comments of a former player,” Celluci tweeted. “I don’t speak for the organization, however I will say that player’s comments don’t reflect the reputation and standard we uphold. Our organization promotes respect and love for all, period.”
