WASHINGTON (AP) — In a recent move, President Donald Trump extended a presidential pardon to Darryl Strawberry, the former New York Mets star, absolving him of past tax evasion and drug-related charges. The decision highlighted Strawberry’s transformation, emphasizing his dedication to Christianity and sustained sobriety since retiring from professional sports.

Strawberry, renowned for his time as an outfielder, was an eight-time All-Star, spending seven of those seasons with the Mets from 1983 to 1990. Over his impressive 17-year career, he amassed 335 home runs, 1,000 RBIs, and 221 stolen bases.

Despite his sports success, Strawberry faced significant legal, health, and personal challenges. In 1995, he faced a tax evasion indictment, ultimately pleading guilty to not reporting $350,000 earned from autographs, personal appearances, and memorabilia sales.

As part of his plea agreement, he consented to pay over $430,000. In 1998, he battled colon cancer, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy treatments.

The following year marked further turmoil as Strawberry was sentenced to probation and temporarily banned from baseball after pleading no contest to cocaine possession and solicitation charges. He openly discussed his battle with depression in court and repeatedly violated probation, including an incident on his 40th birthday in 2002.

Strawberry’s legal troubles culminated in an 11-month stint in a Florida state prison, from which he was released in 2003.

A White House official said Friday that Trump approved a pardon for Strawberry who had served time and paid back taxes. Speaking on background to detail a pardon that had not yet been formally announced, the official noted that Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for a decade-plus, and that he’d become active in ministry and started a still-active recovery center.

Strawberry posted on Instagram a picture of himself and Trump and wrote, “Thank you, President @realdonaldtrump for my full pardon and for finalizing this part of my life, allowing me to be truly free and clean from all of my past.”

He described being home on Thursday afternoon, caring for his wife who was recovering from surgery, “when my phone kept ringing relentlessly.”

“Half asleep, I glanced over and saw a call from Washington DC. Curious, I answered, and to my amazement, the lady on the line said, ‘Darryl Strawberry, you have a call from the President of the United States, Donald Trump,’” Strawberry wrote. “I put it on speakerphone with my wife nearby, and President Trump spoke warmly about my baseball days in NYC, praising me as one the greatest player of the ’80s and celebrating the Mets. Then, he told me he was granting me a full pardon from my past.”

Trump was a New York real estate mogul before becoming a reality television star and twice winning the presidency.

Strawberry said he was “overwhelmed with gratitude — thanking God for setting me free from my past, helping me become a better Man, Husband and Father.”

“This experience has deepened my faith and commitment to working for His kingdom as a true follower of Jesus Christ,” Strawberry wrote, while also noting “This has nothing to do with politics — it’s about a Man, President Trump, caring deeply for a friend. God used him as a vessel to set me free forever!”

Strawberry’s followed Trump issuing pardons this week for a former Republican speaker of the Tennessee House and a onetime aide on public corruption charges. It adds to a list of celebrities and political allies who have similarly received unlikely pardons — including a former Republican governor of Connecticut, an ex-GOP congressman and reality TV stars who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes.

Strawberry played for the Mets, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants between 1983 and 1999. He won the World Series with the 1986 Mets, starring alongside the likes of Dwight Gooden and Keith Hernandez, and with the Yankees in 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Strawberry was hospitalized with a heart attack in March 2024, a day before he turned 62. That same year, the Mets retired his No. 18 and an emotional Strawberry told the Citi Field crowd: “I’m truly, deeply sorry that I ever left you guys. I never played baseball in front of fans greater than you guys.”