MLB's domestic violence probes show a system without standards

When Major League Baseball disciplined Jeurys Familia for allegations of domestic violence in 2017, the league did not have sufficient proof that he hit his wife. Or that the New York Mets fireballer warned the mother of his child that he would try to hurt her.

This isn’t conjecture. That’s according to Rob Manfred, MLB’s longtime commissioner who, per league policy, has the final say on disciplining players accused of abuse.

“The evidence reviewed by my office does not support a determination that Mr. Familia physically assaulted his wife, or threatened her or others with physical force or harm,” Manfred wrote of Familia’s October 31, 2016 altercation with Bianca Rivas, who is also the mother of Familia’s child. “Nevertheless, I have concluded that Mr. Familia's overall conduct that night was inappropriate,” Manfred said of his reasoning, asserting that Familia’s behavior “violated [league policy] and warrants discipline.” The commissioner suspended Familia without pay for 15 games, a shade less than 10% of MLB’s 162-game season and roughly the length of a minor injury rehab. But, still, Manfred’s decision gave public recognition that the league believed he harmed his family.

Manfred did not specify what Familia specifically did that the league found worthy of punishment.¹ However, by referring broadly to the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy, a plan league and union executives created in response to the National Football League’s Ray Rice scandal—a probe plagued by charges of willful negligence, lack of transparency, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s desire to protect players who abuse women instead of supporting their victims—Manfred gives us a starting point for us to do some deductive reasoning from the outside.

Here are the types of abuse MLB defined in its protocol, enumerated for convenience:

Based on Manfred’s statement, let’s rule out #1 and infer that #7 follows. Our process of elimination leaves five other ways Manfred could have accused Familia of harming his spouse. Serious misconduct, but actions that don’t leave the same forensic residue as, for example, the alleged bruises Olivia Finestead accused veteran pitcher Mike Clevinger of inflicting on her pregnant belly from her Instagram, or the marks Clevinger allegedly left on Lindsey Hill’s neck and arms.

Though MLB claimed it didn’t have enough proof of that Familia was guilty of the most straightforward abuse, records from league officials obtained from eyeblack reveal the extent Manfred’s investigative unit was determined to prove what it could, especially when compared to the alleged absence of rigor and effort the more recent probe.

Shohei Ohtani’s translator Ippei Mizuhara is in prison after stealing the superstar’s money to place thousands of bets across sports.² The Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox’s electronic sign stealing plots resulted in lengthy suspensions of coaches and executives who participated, and, respective World Series championships that remain in the record books. Wander Franco was spared prison time after his native Dominican Republic’s courts found him criminally responsible for sexually abusing a minor, leaving open the possibility, however narrow, that the All Star attempts to reenter the United States and rejoin the Tampa Bay Rays.

As different as these three allegations of player misconduct share something in common: MLB addressed them with its Department of Investigations, an opaque, often-secretive group of former prosecutors and police deputized to handle the league’s biggest scandals.

Our initial stories focused on MLB’s probe of Mike Clevinger, a player accused by multiple ex-girlfriends of abusive behavior. eyeblack explored his investigation through the stories of women who say league investigators failed them. Former girlfriends say MLB knew who they were yet never interviewed them about the abuse they say they suffered. An alleged recording (that you can watch here) of MLB’s lead investigator, Moira Weinberg, that eyeblack published in May, appeared to capture the DOI executive deflecting blame from the league by asserting a level of comprehensiveness that some of Clevinger’s exes directly dispute, and instead, faulting Clevinger’s ex-fiancée for sending threatening and harassing texts to a man she accused of slapping and choking. (Neither Weinberg nor MLB has responded to questions for comment regarding the alleged footage.)

But using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law and some elbow grease, eyeblack collected hundreds of emails between the league and police departments around the United States to sketch out MLB’s trends, patterns, and informal protocols won’t share about how it investigates players.