Major League Baseball is likely to punish Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes during the upcoming week for a violation of its domestic violence policy, reports Nick Groke of the Denver Post. Reyes’ status with the league has been in limbo for several months as a result of his arrest on domestic violence charges in November. Criminal charges were dropped in March because Reyes’ wife – the alleged victim – was unwilling to cooperate in the case, but punishment from the league has been expected all along. The situation has dragged in part because the league doesn’t have a presence in Hawaii, where the alleged incident took place, according to Groke. Reyes has been on paid administrative leave since February and has collected upward of $3MM from the Rockies to not play. The club will recoup some of the money owed to Reyes when the league punishes him, but it’s unknown whether the 32-year-old will play for the Rockies (or anyone else) again. Reyes was primed to collect $48MM, including a $4MM buyout in 2018, over the final three seasons of his contract before his off-field issues arose. Thanks to Trevor Story’s early season breakout, the Rockies haven’t missed Reyes at all on the field.
In other news from around the league…
- In an interesting piece, John Tomase of WEEI details the relationship between Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz and Yankees DH Alex Rodriguez, who had a falling out in 2014 that put their two-decade-long friendship in jeopardy. Ortiz took offense when A-Rod’s attorneys suggested back then that there was a PED-related double standard between him and players “who are God-like in Boston right now.” After a couple years of silence, the two finally spoke again during Spring Training, per Tomase. “I’ve always been a real friend to him, and I’m happy we’re hearing more good things about him than what we normally used to hear,” said Ortiz. Regarding Ortiz, A-Rod stated, “Look, I’ve known him for over 20 years. We’ve had an incredible relationship and I’m happy where it is today.”
- A pair of notable rotation reinforcements, Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy, are on track to rejoin the Dodgers’ early in the summer, writes Doug Padilla of ESPN.com. Ryu, who’s working his way back from shoulder surgery, threw a 40- to 45-pitch bullpen session Saturday and could return sometime in June. McCarthy, on the mend from Tommy John surgery, threw 50 to 60 pitches Saturday and might come back closer to July. Dodgers starters have held their own this year with a 3.37 ERA/3.33 FIP/3.58 xFIP, but adding accomplished veteran depth for the stretch run is never a bad thing. Ryu hasn’t pitched since 2014, though his first two major league campaigns were highly successful. In one of his best seasons to date, 2014, McCarthy compiled a 4.05 ERA, 52.5 percent ground-ball rate, 7.88 K/9 and 1.49 BB/9 while totaling a career-high 200 innings.
- Blue Jays reliever Brett Cecil became the holder of an ignominious record Saturday, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet: The southpaw suffered his fifth defeat, giving him the most losses in relief at the end of April since data became available in 1913. Cecil, whose ERA is up to 5.79, failed to register an out while allowing three straight hits and the game-winning run against the Rays. The 2016 campaign has brought an unexpected fall from grace for Cecil, who had been one of the league’s most effective relievers the previous three seasons. Of course, given the sample size (9 1/3 innings), all isn’t lost for Cecil, but his strikeout, swinging strike and ground-ball rates all took noticeable dives during the first month of the season.
The part of the Dodgers roster that is totally broken is middle relief. No help in sight on that front, unfortunately.
I can’t take these Hatcher moments anymore.
Bullpens are relatively easy to fix, however, and it’s not like any team in the West is running away with it.. And the Dodgers can afford anything. If Houston stays bad they would probably get rid of Gregerson and Fields, Atlanta has a few useful bullpen arms, Padres would get rid of Rodney in a second. Dodgers got a bit screwed in the Chapman situation. I assume if they’d known his suspesion was only going to last a month they’d have done the trade.
You make a valid point; bullpens are fairly easy to fix. However, the front office has been unwilling/unable to do so for two straight years.
The Gibbons’ Buejays: his every solution is its own problem. Has been. Will be.
Reyes’ career is probably done, right? He doesn’t really have any on-field value anymore and the off-field stuff exacerbates that.
Lol if you think domestic violence ends a career look at Michael Vick, the sports business cares about 2 things … Production and money
I doubt he’s done. If the Rockies just cut him and eat his salary, someone else will take him on and probably move him to 2B. Yes, he had a poor year last year and who knows how much time he’ll miss this year when all is said and done, but he was a 3 WAR player just two years ago despite poor defense at SS. I have no doubt he’ll catch on somewhere.
Vick was animal cruelty, and it did effectively railroad his career, he lost all his endorsements & declared bankruptcy.
Might want to ask Greg Hardy and Ray Rice what domestic violence does to a career though, if you can find them.
Re: A-Rod and Ortiz beef. Eh. A-Rod is immensely unlikeable, but you can see why his lawyers might have made the point. MLB.com runs regular puff-pieces on Big Papi. I don’t think there’s any deep conspiracy here to bury past alleged PED use–it’s just marketability, and baseball is about making money.