Originally Posted by
Godfather
Interesting case. Guy plead guilty to a disturbing crime, molesting his 6 year old niece at age 15, has now been passed over in the 2018 MLB draft despite being a star, but the Royals have shown some interest in signing him. I found these bullet points for anyone like me not up on the case:
* He plead guilty and was legally convicted.
* He denies his guilt and says the plea bargain was to avoid a family-destroying trial.
* He completed everything the court asked him to do.
* There’s a chance he didn’t really do it.
* There’s also a chance that he did do it.
* Statistics are not on his side; most sexual abuse allegations are true, especially from children as young as the reported victim (age 4-6).
* Nonetheless, it is entirely possible that he didn’t do it.
* Even if he did do it, he was 15 at the time. With proper therapy, recidivism for offenders in that age cohort is quite low from everything I’ve read. He’s unlikely a threat to society at this point even if he did do it.
* He has the right to make a living.
This guy paid for crime, then went on to be a college baseball star, and an academic one too... I've been argued with a few times for defending 13-15 year olds being tried as adults for crimes. So would I be a hypocrite to say I'd stay away from him as a baseball GM? From a business perspective: what would the dynamic be like in the locker room and with your fan-base? Would you accept this guy as a teammate and as a fan? How much does that matter to your business as a major league team? There's already a lot of bad press out there with athletes who've beat their wives being allowed to play - is this a double standard, or a step in the right direction to pass this guy over? I can't help but think of how the prison system handles sex offenders because it's universally viewed as one of the most sickening crimes... Then again, I don't always agree with underage people being registered as sex offenders for life (specifically in more consenting cases like exchanging nudes, not molestation, but that's a whole different debate we've beat down many times).
It's just a ton of baggage for a league that drafts and retains more talent than any other major sports league. A 15 year old molesting a 6 year old niece... maybe he deserves a chance to go to law school or whatever and have a career, but when it comes to something as public as giving him a contract to play in the MLB, I don't think I could do it. Curious to hear your thoughts RBP.