#Mets give Bruce Maxwell — MLB’s first kneeler — another baseball chance

The Mets signed catcher Bruce Maxwell, who was the first MLB player to kneel during the national anthem, to a minor-league contract Tuesday, according to Newsday.

Maxwell arrived in New York on Monday, per the report, and his contract is pending a physical and testing negative in the league’s coronavirus intake protocol. The 28-year-old Maxwell slashed .182/.207./309 with one home run during the 2018 season, his last in the MLB with the Athletics before he elected free agency.

Maxwell, who is black and whose father is a US military veteran, is best known for taking a knee during the national anthem prior to an A’s game during his rookie season in September 2017 to protest racial injustice.

“I got pushed out of the game because I took a knee during the national anthem,” Maxwell told ESPN recently. “It eats at me. I find a way to still get my work done, but it still eats at me. Everyone talks about veteran leadership, but where were they? Chris Archer deflected every question. Didn’t even want to make the BLM video. No time for that dude. Andrew McCutchen? Where was everybody? How do you let a guy with one year of service time out-lead you?

“I didn’t do this for the clout. I did this because of what’s happening in this country and because we play in the whitest sport. We play in the most racist sport. There should be more of us out there.”

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In October 2017, he was arrested on a felony aggravated assault charge for pointing a firearm at the head of a female food delivery driver delivering food to him at his home in Arizona. Maxwell later pleaded to a lesser charge and was sentenced to probation and community service.