MLB pitcher Sam Dyson’s ex-girlfriend accuses him of domestic violence after he ‘injured her cat’

The ex-girlfriend of former Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Sam Dyson has accused him of domestic violence, and as she tells the Daily Mail, she now plans to meet with Major League Baseball representatives in New York next week to share her story after an incident in which he allegedly injured her cat.

Alexis Blackburn, who lived with Dyson in Jupiter, Florida until their recent breakup, declined to go into specifics about her allegations against the MLB free agent, but did tell the Daily Mail that ‘it’s deeper than just physical abuse.’

The final straw, Blackburn told the Daily Mail, was when Dyson kicked her cat’s toy box: ‘My cat was in the box at the time.’

Dyson’s agent did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.  

Blackburn wrote a pair of lengthy Instagram posts this week that alluded to domestic violence without mentioning the name of the accused, who she has since identified as Dyson to the Daily Mail.

On Sunday, Blackburn described herself as ‘broken’ after allowing her ‘physical health, my emotional health and my mental health to diminish to nothing.’

‘I’ve allowed more things to happen than I want to admit,’ she wrote.

Writing as her cat, Snuckles, in a post on Tuesday, Blackburn alluded to another violent encounter in a post that included a pair of pictures: one of the feline perched on the box, and another in which the box had been completely destroyed.

‘As you can see in the second photo, someone I trusted with my safety, protection, and love did the unthinkable while I was inside the box,’ Blackburn wrote, using her cat’s perspective.

As Blackburn confirmed to Daily Mail, the 12-year-old cat was inside the box and did suffer an injury ‘as a direct result of Sam kicking the box.’

She and her cat have since moved back in with her mother in Georgia.

‘Mom [Alexis Blackburn] took me to grandmas for good because unlike my previous ‘safe space,’ GRANDMAS is a safe space,’ Blackburn wrote, in first person, on her cat’s account. ‘I don’t have to worry about getting hurt because of anger or control. I don’t have to be scared of yelling and things being hurled at mom and me. I don’t have to be scared anymore.

‘This was a preventable incident,’ she continued. ‘This did not need to happen, but it did. The moment I, Snuckles, got involved was the moment mom said goodbye. Love your fur babies enough to do the right thing. At the end of the day we don’t make people do anything. We can’t control their actions and behaviors. What we can control is how we deal with the situation. Mom won’t allow there to be a second incident because my mom truly loves me enough to say goodbye to toxic behavior and people.’

In speaking with the Daily Mail, Blackburn also referenced the ‘power and control’ wheel, which is a diagram used to help understand patterns of abuse.

‘He has done everything on there,’ she said.

The league does have history of enforcing its domestic violence policy against players who were accused on social media.

Former Tampa Bay Rays catcher Derek Norris was suspended in 2017 when his ex-fiancee accused him of physical and emotional abuse on her blog.

A year later, Melisa Reidy-Russell claimed on Instagram that ex-husband and Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell was guilty of years of emotional and physical abuse. He was later suspended 40 games without pay.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred rules on such disciplinary matters under baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.

Dyson has earned close to $14 million over parts of eight Major League seasons.