MAY 13: FOX’s Ken Rosenthal reports that an announcement on Reyes could come as soon as today, and he hears the same as Heyman: Reyes is expected to be suspended for at least 60 days. Interestingly, however, Rosenthal suggests that Reyes will not be suspended an additional 60 days on top of his paid administrative leave, but rather will repay the money he earned on leave and be suspended for an additional 26 games (or more, if the suspension proves lengthier than 60 days).
Rosenthal also adds that the delay in determining a punishment for Reyes has not been due to any differences between the commissioner’s office and the MLBPA, but rather due to difficulty in obtaining the necessary information to make a final ruling.
MAY 8: Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes could be facing at least a 60-game suspension under the league’s domestic violence policy, with some sources estimating that Reyes could be sidelined for closer to 80 games, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports.
A suspension has seemed inevitable ever since the alleged incident between Reyes and his wife took place in Hawaii last November. Criminal charges against Reyes were dropped in March since Reyes’ wife wasn’t willing to participate in the case (nor has she been willing to participate in MLB’s investigation of the incident) and the shortstop has been on paid administrative leave while the matter has been examined by the league and the player’s union.
The policy gives Commissioner Rob Manfred the ability to discipline players in such alleged domestic violence situations even if no criminal charges are filed. Aroldis Chapman, for instance, is nearing the end of his own 30-game suspension for an offseason incident, though as Heyman notes, Reyes’ incident has been considered to be a more serious matter due to the severity of the alleged violence.
Reyes was owed $22MM by the Rockies this season, so a suspension in the range of 60 to 80 games would cost him roughly $7.33MM-$9.77MM (as a reminder, players are paid over the 180-day MLB calendar, not strictly the 162-game season). Beyond this season, Reyes is also owed $22MM in 2017 and a $4MM buyout of a $22MM club option for 2018. There has been speculation that once Reyes’ suspension is up, the Rockies will simply release the shortstop and eat the rest of the money owed to him in order to cut ties as quickly as possible.
I suppose I shouldn’t opine until the ruling is handed down, but my initial thought is…that’s it?
You don’t think getting suspended for half a season and losing $10 million in salary is enough for a guy hitting his wife?
If I were found to have done that I would lose my job and I don’t have the benefit of having millions of dollars in the bank, or promise of more guaranteed money coming in (to borrow against) to live off.
Not only would I lose my job, but it would be very hard for me to find another job, particularly in the same industry if people were to find out.
So yeah…. is it a big enough penalty for someone who wasn’t charged… maybe, but then again clearly he did it, the cops don’t charge every criminal, only those that they can prove so I wouldn’t care if he never played again.
The dude has more money and chances in life to succeed than anyone I’ll ever meet, so I don’t really care if he ever plays again… AND I liked the guy a lot!
For the sake of accuracy, he put his hand around her throat and shoved her into a glass door. And, no, I don’t think that an 80-game suspension is enough.
Again, he WAS charged and was about to stand trial.
*Allegedly
You do? I love the casual attitude here — so what, it’s just a dude hitting his wife, why the fuss? It’s a cowardly and despicable act, not something to slap some wrists over and just move along.
Shame he can’t be prosecuted; all indications that I’ve seen are that he is 100% guilty, and I hope Manfred treats it that way so long as the evidence supports that conclusion.
You’re the one being casual. You have no idea what he did or did not do. And that’s coming from someone who would like to string him up if he actually hit her. But we don’t know that he did. Police pretty much everywhere are required to arrest the male in a heterosexual relationship if they are called for domestic dispute. So the arrest per se means nothing.
Seamaholic is right that we don’t really know what he did for sure, we have a gut feeling but none of us have access to the facts. I can’t see the internal report that MLB hired investigators to find out. We can read the police report because it’s sealed.
But you don’t employ a dog and bark too. That means I trust MLB to do their job and I don’t have to micro manage them doing that, I couldn’t if I wanted to anyway.
The Monday morning quarterbacks think that because they have read some stuff on the internet they know the facts, we don’t. Hell I even saw people post on here that Reyes shot a gun… ummm THAT WAS CHAPMAN!
However it comes down to this. Do you think guilty people are often not charged due to lack of evidence or do you think that every guilty person is always charged and convicted? If the answer is the obvious one then do you think that suspensions should be:
1. Based on convictions?
2. Based on people being charged but yet to be found guilty?
3. Based on what the league finds out in their own investigation and is confident of the accuracy even if the person isn’t charged?
4. Should this information be released to the public?
Remember when you decide that stuff like this needs to be released to the public, you’re asking that VERY personal things be released about a victim. Let’s say a player did something really disgusting to his wife, she might not want the whole world to know that kind of sordid detail and it’s very likely that IF this becomes the policy that many victims will not come forward because they don’t want the world to know their business.
If you were raped by some dude in a bathroom while you were drunk would you want the world to know EVERYTHING? I doubt it. Would you want your workmates to know exactly what that dude did to you while you were passed out? Or would you hope that some of that stuff is kept private?
Personally, I trust the league to handle this matter and get it right. I am okay with not having to know the ins and out of a ducks butt and micro manage their decision making process.
Disciplining in the face of no criminal charges seems a slippery slope and an excessive dose of power for MLB’s commissioner.
there were criminal charges – they had to be dropped because the alleged victim refused to cooperate with the prosecution. anyone who has spent any time working in and with domestic violence cases knows how prevalent this can be. abused women get wooed or frightened into silence after being abused (“I’m so sorry baby, I’ll never do it again. I love you”), and then the cycle often repeats. the player’s union and mlb BOTH agreed to the terms of the policy (including the part that grants the commissioner’s right to punish regardless of a conviction) because they wanted to stand firm against domestic violence. the commissioner has taken his time to do this right, to investigate and get all ducks in a row. he isn’t jumping on some media bandwagon and abusing authority with arbitrary snap decisions. the players don’t want abusers in their locker rooms. there is no slope here – much less a slippery one.
The slope is that everything you just said is heresay and opinion, and without established facts to justify the severity of a punishment then you risk setting capricious precedents for future cases. This all changes if conclusive facts are established of course. But until then, and despite what you think is the pattern of behavior here, the comish is probably best off handing down the same suspension as chapman. Police report but no charges = 30 games end of story.
I disagree. First of all he can always play the card with his wife “if I am charged I lose my livelihood and that means no money for you either”. Many victims are intimidated and scared into not testifying for reasons more than just financial.
None of us know the exact details but the league does so we should trust them to make a judgement based on what they know. Chapman’s situation could have been less violent for all we know.
The US legal system it is built on a premise of “better 10 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man goes to jail”. But MLB baseball doesn’t need to base their policy on the US legal system, nor should it. The military doesn’t.
The end of the day, the league actually has less power than an actual business does, in that their employees are not “at will” and they can’t just be dismissed which could happen if he worked at a call center answering phones.
It’s about the underlying facts, not the police/prosecutorial action. There’s no slope if you follow reasonable procedures, and both the union and player/agent have every incentive to push back if that’s not done.
As a matter of fact, there were no criminal charges. Point stands, not in defense of domestic abuse, but as a commentary on the odd balance of MLB’s commissioner having jurisdiction to supercede the criminal justice system. Slippery slope.
They are not attempting to incarcerate him, which WOULD be superseding the criminal justice system. They are suspending him from work due to the incident causing harm to the MLB brand. You can get suspended from any job without criminal charges being filed. They have a policy and Reyes broke said policy, therefore he must accept the punishment or retire.
What exactly is the policy, so we are clear? No charges of domestic violence, or no proven perpetration of domestic violence? Strange to think the policy you refer to as being broken uses accusations as a negative criteria instead of crime commitment itself, which has yet to be proven beyond a doubt.
Accusations alone don’t count as negative criteria. If they did, then Yasiel Puig would’ve been suspended, too.
Chapman was suspended because it’s clear that he did something stupid. I’d bet that MLB will show that Reyes did something at least as stupid if they plan to suspend him for at least as long.
In simple terms what the policy entails is he caused bad PR for MLB and is getting punished for it. This has nothing to do with domestic violence, it is all about public relations. MLB doesn’t really care what he did to his wife, but they are going to punish him because if they don’t they will have to deal with a lot of people vociferously protesting that don’t REALLY care about Jose Reyes’s wife either. They would just be using her as a pawn for their never-ending quest for being offended about something.
You could argue this about just about anything. Sure, it’s PR-related, but it seems they made a serious attempt at a worthwhile policy. All other businesses would or should do the same.
Retire…….haha lets just say he gets 60 or 80 game suspension then he’s gonna continue sitting at home and collect the rest of money about 30 million owed to him! What a Effin punishment!
I don’t think he will retire. I was just emphasizing that his only options are to accept the punishment OR walk away from the company.
Huh? There most certainly were criminal charges.
Misdemeanor, yeah.
They supercede the criminal justice system all the time; Androstenedione isn’t illegal; in baseball you get an 80-game suspension for using it. The union and mlb signed off on this. In Reyes’ case, the ONLY reason there aren’t criminal charges filed was because the victim refused to testify, which is, sadly, incredibly common with domestic abuse cases. It doesn’t mean there isn’t evidence it happened (victim had bruises and cuts, police were called to the scene, etc). Major league baseball investigated this evidence and is handing down its own punishment. And frankly, 60 days off work is a much lesser punishment than Reyes would have received in the criminal justice system.
Oops, meant to write “the only reason the criminal charges were dropped.” There were criminal charges filed.
Apples and oranges. PED’s are banned in baseball for a very specific reason that is core to the business model: It makes the competition questionable. That’s a totally different situation.
Please turn over your Vin handle if you aren’t willing to learn a bit about this matter before commenting. Supersede? There are many types of consequences that can attach to one’s actions, with criminal justice being only one of them. It’s not a slippery slope at all for an employer to punish an employee for horrific conduct, if supported by evidence, especially when the business in question is a very public entity which sells entertainment.
Spare me your condescending point of view and assumption of ignorance. Again, my original point stands – slippery slope. All this grandstanding against domestic violence is misplaced, nobody is defending physical violence in any capacity. You moral high ground heroes are exhausting.
@vinscully16 I read all your comments and it seems that you believe that unless criminal charges are brought against someone, MLB should take no action. Is that correct?
You haven’t really offered a deep opinion on the matter so it’s hard to tell what you think should happen. If you were the MLB Commissioner, what would you do in this case?
I appreciate the anti-domestic abuse passion. As someone from a family with a lot of that history I totally get it. But you’re arguing for railroading someone with no (public anyway) evidence. If MLB knows what happened that night, then they have every right to punish Reyes. But unless you’re privy to non-public information you have no friggin’ idea that what he did was “horrific”. I’m just making stuff up, but what if she attacked him with a weapon first? We have no idea what happened.
I don’t think people quite get that you don’t need criminal charges to face consequences outside of the criminal justice system. It’s like saying you can’t suspend someone for showing up to work drunk if they didn’t get convicted of a DUI while driving to work on that day. Just because charges get dropped doesn’t mean there’s NO evidence whatsoever.
JD396, you are EXACTLY right. Thank you!
This is a critical point. Remember how OJ was acquitted, but still lost a civil suit? It’s sorta like that.
And I suppose YOU have said evidence? No one on this board knows what happened.
I bet Toronto brass are smiling every time Tulo comes to the plate! As an employer I can certainly suspend someone from work regardless of what the criminal justice system does. I can fire an employee as well without a criminal conviction. We need more men willing to stand up against other men that beat women and kids! This guy is out there battering a woman and y’all wanna just make everything fair and pretty. He’s paid big money he can handle the heat for hi stupidity.
I can’t imagine anybody in the Blue Jay org is smiling when Tulo steps to the plate. He has an OBP < .300 and 79 OPS+ since the trade.
Keep in mind Tulo is also owed (not counting this year) a minimum of 78 million (15 milliopn team option with a 4 million buy out). So depending on what happens with Tulo, we’ll see who’s smiling.
He’s still playing defense that puts Reyes to shame. Until Hoffman proves he’s a legit starting pitcher for the Rockies (and he may some day), the Jays have won this trade already.
Hardly. He’s a replacement level player right now, and only because of a short sample defensive metric. Literally they’d be about as well off with Brendan Ryan playing short.
I was thinking the same thing..no smiles from Blue Jays with Tulo batting .162 and huge dollars remaining. Sure they are happy to not have Reyes mess but Tulo is looking like his better days have come and gone.
Can he play 3rd base? That one two punch of Reyes and Chapman……
Reyes deserves at least an 80 game, Chapman got off way too easy. Guy fired a gun like 8 times.
At a window. Why does everyone forget that part when they state he was shooting a gun? Oh yeah, because leaving those words out makes him seem like a worse guy.
Stray bullets have never killed any one in the history of ever, How he faced no charges for discharging a firearm in such a way is a mystery.
Ray Ray, adding that part in doesn’t make him seem a whole lot better. He shouldn’t be firing a gun at anything not on a shooting range, especially the window of his house. It’s still reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous.
trade him !
lots of bad contracts out there.
how about to the A’s for Billy Butler & Co Co Crisp.
$$ is about equal
I agree that it is all of those things, but I also think that it is the police’s job to determine if punishment is required in a reckless endangerment case. I have no real problem with MLB having a domestic violence policy and doling out punishment for that crime. What I have a problem with is Chapman is being punished for at worst reckless endangerment. Where will it end? Will guys be suspended for reckless driving? Getting a DUI? Speeding? What if they are let off by the cop, but someone has a camera that captures them getting pulled over? Will MLB still punish them?
There needs to be hard and fast rules for what MLB can punish players for. It seems like they are taking forever because no one really knows what to do. If you are going to have a policy, it needs to be written in stone so the players and the fans know what to expect.
I understand that Reyes need to be suspended yet I think MLB has done a bad job on figuring out how many games he should be suspended. His suspension should have started since day one, I’m starting to believe MLB is delaying things to be honest
MLB needs to make a fixed number of suspended games for these type of issues