TORONTO – Major League Baseball extended Roberto Osuna’s paid administrative leave for another seven days Monday, giving its officials more time to probe the charge of assaulting a woman laid against the Blue Jays closer by Toronto police last week.
The decision was made under Section II.B of the joint domestic violence policy, which allows a for a second leave to follow the expiration of the first seven-day period, with the consent of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
The policy also allows the sides to agree to further, less defined extensions to allow the commissioner’s office to complete its investigation. Osuna has been on leave since he was arrested and charged last Tuesday.
What comes next for Osuna will depend on what MLB investigators have already learned and what else they discover. Their probe is one of two processes concurrently playing out for the 23-year-old, whose first court date is scheduled for June 18.
The procedural steps on MLB’s end were updated during the most recent round of collective bargaining agreement between players and owners, creating a more structured process for the sides to follow.
Two cases that seemed to offer relevant precedents predate those chances.
On Feb. 23, 2016, Jose Reyes, then of the Colorado Rockies, was placed on paid leave pending the completion of criminal proceedings against him in Hawaii, with the commissioner’s office reserving judgment on the incident until after the legal end had wrapped up.
On April 11, a Hawaii judge approved the dismissal of a domestic abuse charge against Reyes after Reyes’ wife refused to speak with prosecutors. On May 13, 2016, MLB still suspended him through May 31 retroactive to Feb. 23, covering all of spring training plus the first two months of the season.
Reyes also agreed to contribute “a total of $100,000 to one or more charitable organizations focused on preventing and treating survivors of domestic violence,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement at the time.
Outfielder Hector Olivera, then of the Atlanta Braves, was dealt with similarly in April 2016.
He was placed on leave right after he was arrested when a women told authorities she was assaulted at the team hotel. Once the seven days were up, the leave was extended and on May 26 he was handed an 82-game suspension without pay before his case had been adjudicated.
That September he was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail after being found guilty on a misdemeanour domestic assault charge.
The Rockies released Reyes after his suspension ended, although he signed with the New York Mets shortly afterwards and remains with them now.
The Braves traded Olivera to San Diego for Matt Kemp during his suspension period in a swap of bad money contracts and the Padres released him 11 days later.
Whatever comes next for Osuna, the club will have a difficult decision to make once he becomes eligible to return as an elite closer coming off an all-star season who has two more seasons of club control remaining before he becomes eligible for free agency.
The Mets also brought closer Jeurys Familia back after he was arrested in October 2016 on a simple assault charge after his wife was left with scratches on her chest and a bruise on her cheek, The Associated Press reported. The charge was dismissed in December after Familia’s wife told a prosecutor her husband did not hurt her but baseball still issued him a 15-game suspension.
The New York Yankees acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds in December 2015 weeks after a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers fell through when word that police in Florida were investigating an accusation of domestic violence.
Charges weren’t filed because of insufficient evidence although baseball still issued the left-hander a 30-game suspension. The Yankees dealt Chapman to the Chicago Cubs, where he helped win a World Series, and then re-signed him as a free agent for $86 million over five years after the 2016 season.
After Osuna’s arrest and his placement on leave by MLB, the Blue Jays released the following statement: “We are aware of the incident involving Roberto and fully support the decision by the Commissioner’s Office to place him on administrative leave. We are taking the matter extremely seriously, as the type of conduct associated with this incident is not reflective of our values as an organization. As this remains an ongoing investigation by Toronto Police, the club will not comment further on the matter.”
