Wander Franco, Trevor Bauer among MLB's most offensive characters
Violence, drugs, gambling, and more upsetting infractions
Baseball’s history is filled with countless memorable characters who are known just as much for their personalities and off-field behavior as they are for what they did on the diamond. While most are positive, there are, of course, some distasteful characters in the sport’s past.
Following nearly a year-long investigation, authorities in the Dominican Republic finally moved forward in September 2024 with charges against Tampa Bay Rays infielder Wander Franco. The trial date has been set for December and Franco could be facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Between the nature of the charges and the fact that he likely won’t be able to return to the United States, it is highly unlikely Franco ever returns to a major league roster again.
The attention Franco’s case has received since allegations first came to light late in the 2023 season has been warranted, but it reminds me of other offensive characters in the sport’s past. There have been just over 23,000 players in MLB history to date. Thankfully, the percentage of that group who fall into this category of “offensive” is small.
MLB and the MLBPA first created an official domestic violence policy in August 2015. Since then, 17 players have been suspended by the Commissioner’s Office to varying degrees.
Aroldis Chapman — suspended 30 games in March 2016
José Reyes — 51 games, May 2016
Héctor Olivera — 82 games, May 2016
Jeurys Familia — 15 games, March 2017
Derek Norris — the remainder of the season, September 2017
Steven Wright — 15 games, March 2018
José Torres — 100 games (remainder of the season), June 2018
Roberto Osuna — 75 games, June 2018
Addison Russell — 40 games, September 2018
Odúbel Herrera — 85 games (remainder of the season), July 2019
Julio Urias — 20 games, August 2019
Domingo Germán — 81 games, January 2020
Sam Dyson — 162 games, March 2021
Marcell Ozuna — 20 games, November 2021
Trevor Bauer — 324 games (later reduced to 194), April 2022
Carlos Martinez — 85 games, September 2022
Jimmy Cordero — 76 games (remainder of the season), July 2023
For many of these guys, these suspensions marked the end of their careers in one way or another.
Torres, Dyson, and Martinez never suited up again.
Olivera and Norris spent a single season in independent ball before hanging up their cleats.
Osuna, Russell, Cordero, and Bauer have been forced to seek playing opportunities overseas to continue their careers.
MLB officials have been kept busy over the last year-plus. In addition to the ongoing investigation into Franco (which the league likely will not conclude until after D.R. proceedings are completed), the league has also been looking into Urias following his arrest in September 2023. Urias pleaded no contest to battery charges in May. The former Dodgers left-hander will likely be the first player suspended twice under the league’s domestic violence policies once a decision has been levied. He sat out the entire 2024 season.
Former players with offensive violence or sexual assault-related transgressions exist beyond the above list, of course. Some of these matters took place before the league and player’s union agreed on the existing policies. Some occurred following the player’s career coming to an end.
Pitcher Julio Machado spent the offseason following the 1991 season at home in Venezuela where he fatally shot a woman following a traffic accident in December. Machado claimed it was self-defense, but would ultimately be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in August 1996 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Former outfielder Jose Canseco was no stranger to controversy, both during and after his playing career. He’ll best be remembered for his connection to steroids and the performance-enhancing drugs era but there were violent moments in his past, including a November 1997 arrest for beating his then-wife.
Former outfielder Lenny Dykstra was charged in October 1999 with sexually harassing a teenage girl working at a carwash he owned. Charges were dismissed a month later, but the matter marked the start of a long history of legal battles that included grand theft, bankruptcy fraud, identity theft, indecent exposure, money laundering, and drug possession.
Former reliever Ugueth Urbina was arrested in November 2005 on charges of attempted murder, after Urbina had allegedly threatened five farmhands at his Venezuela ranch with a machete. Urbina believed they had stolen a gun from him and also was accused of dousing them with gasoline. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in March 2007.
Former outfielder Mel Hall was sentenced in June 2009 to 45 years in prison by a Texas court after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting multiple underage girls that he coached.
Former outfielder Milton Bradley was convicted in June 2013 on multiple charges of battery and domestic violence against his wife, all misdemeanors in California. Their ten-year relationship was filled with both physical and emotional abuse, according to testimony the wife provided during the trial. She passed away just months later from prior injuries that appeared to have gone untreated. Bradley spent 15 months in jail.
Bradley would be convicted in June 2018 for a second time on domestic violence charges, this time to his second wife. He was sentenced to 36 months probation.
Former outfielder Chad Curtis was sentenced in October 2013 by a Michigan court for six counts of sexual misconduct. Following his playing career, Curtis worked as an athletic director and weigh room trainer at an all-girls high school where he assaulted multiple students. He would spend seven years in jail.
Former closer John Wetteland was arrested in January 2019 on charges that he had sexually assaulted an underage male relative. The judge would declare a mistrial in September 2022 after the jury became deadlocked. Charges would be dismissed a few months later.
A February 2019 report from The Washington Post details an alleged sexual assault that took place in February 2015 involving multiple Dodgers minor leaguers at spring training. Police investigated but did not file any charges. The Post story claims former outfielder and then-Dodgers executive Gabe Kapler was informed of the incident, but failed to act. Outfielder Alex Verdugo would later be linked to the incident, the only player named and alleged to have been involved, though he would deny any involvement.
Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Felipe Vázquez was arrested in September 2019 after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor. Vázquez faced more than 20 felony charges and would be denied bail at a November hearing. He would remain in custody until his trial in May 2021. Vázquez was deported back to Venezuela in December 2023.
MLB never officially placed Vázquez on the ineligible list but it would be a foregone conclusion considering he wouldn’t be able to obtain a work visa once the felony charges were filed (the same issue Franco will face).
Brandon Taubman, an assistant general manager for the Houston Astros, was in the clubhouse following the team’s victory in the ALCS in October 2019. Taubman made multiple comments directed at a group of female reporters waiting to interview players. His actions were documented and published by Stephanie Apstein at Sports Illustrated just two days later.
The Houston front office initially attacked Apstein’s reporting, but ultimately fired Taubman a week later and accepted responsibility for his actions. He would be placed on the ineligible list in January 2020.
Catcher Reese McGuire was arrested in February 2020 while attending spring training. McGuire was found sitting in his car in a public parking lot without pants on and faced charges of indecent exposure. He would plead no contest and paid an undisclosed fine when the case went to court that July.
Former shortstop and longtime coach Omar Vizquel is the subject of a December 2020 story in The Athletic detailing a history of domestic violence following allegations raised by his wife.
Vizquel is named in a lawsuit months later after allegations arose that he had targeted and sexually harassed a batboy while managing the Birmingham Barons. An undisclosed settlement was reached in June 2022 and the suit was dismissed.
Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar was working for the league offices in a consultant role when he was placed on the permanently ineligible list in April 2021, following an independent investigation initiated by the league. Alomar had been employed with the Toronto Blue Jays when he sexually harassed a female employee in 2014.
Former outfielder turned broadcaster F.P. Santangelo was suspended from broadcasts by the Washington Nationals in May 2021 following allegations of sexual misconduct that arose anonymously on social media. Santangelo denied the claims and was reinstated two months later following an investigation conducted by the league at the team’s request. He returned to the Nationals’s broadcast booth but departed the team following the season.
Pitching coach Mickey Callaway was fired by the Los Angeles Angels in May 2021 and placed on the permanently ineligible list, following a report by The Athletic in February that detailed five female members of the media that Callaway had sexually harassed.
Former outfielder Juan Encarnación was arrested and charged in August 2021 by authorities in the Dominican Republic for sexually assaulting his underage daughter.
Former outfielder Yasiel Puig was revealed in a December 2021 story to have reached settlements with multiple women who he had sexually assaulted in January 2017. Despite allegations rising while still an active player with the Dodgers at the time, they somehow remained private to the league and public.
Puig would find himself in separate trouble in November 2022, pleading guilty to federal authorities for lying about his involvement in an illegal gambling operation in California. More on other gambling issues a bit later.
Former pitcher Sergio Mitre was sentenced to 40 to 60 years in prison by Mexican authorities in January 2022, finding Mitre guilty of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s infant child.
Chicago White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger is the subject of allegations brought in January 2023 by the mother of his 10-month-old daughter, claiming he had abused them both. The league investigated before announcing in early March that they would not impose any punishment.
Former pitcher Dan Serafini was arrested in October 2023 in connection with the 2021 murders of Serafini’s in-laws.
Former outfielder Dustan Mohr was sentenced in April 2024 to nine years in jail by an Indiana court for sexually assaulting an underage girl.
Former reliever Austin Maddox was arrested in April 2024 as part of an undercover sting operation in Florida. Maddox is one of 27 individuals charged with attempting to meet an underage girl.
Broadcaster and former outfielder Craig Monroe was suspended indefinitely by the Detroit Tigers in July 2024 after allegations of sexual assault appeared on social media. Florida police confirm that an active investigation is ongoing. Monroe has not returned to the Tigers broadcast booth.
Political corruption
As if all the violence wasn’t enough, corruption opted to join the party.
Raúl Mondesi was a .273/.331/.485 hitter across parts of 13 seasons, winning a pair of Gold Gloves and the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1994 with the Dodgers. Following the conclusion of his playing career in 2005, Mondesi returned home to the Dominican Republic and got involved in politics. In 2010, he was elected to a six-year term as mayor of his hometown of San Cristobal.
Corruption is common in many Latin American cities and Mondesi was no stranger to allegations during his tenure as mayor. He (and three others) were eventually charged with embezzling more than $5 million in funds from the city. Mondesi served six years of house arrest and paid a fine of more than $1.27 million.
General stupidity
Former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made headlines on numerous occasions throughout his tenure leading the franchise, but the most notable came in July 1990 when he was suspended for a year by Commissioner Fay Vincent. The suspension came following the revelation that Steinbrenner had paid a known gambler $40,000 to “dig up dirt and discredit” Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield after Winfield sued the team for failing to live up to a provision in his contract that called for a donation to be made to Winfield’s foundation.
Former pitcher José Rijo was largely responsible for the shuttering of the Washington Nationals Dominican Republic academy in February 2009, after a player the team had signed was discovered to be four years older than previously believed. Rijo was also accused of having a pre-arranged agreement with the player to kick back a portion of his signing bonus. The Nationals promptly fired him.
Former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa was sentenced to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of computer hacking in July 2016. Correa had been found to have illegally accessed Houston’s “Ground Control” computer system (in which they stored proprietary in-house data such as contract details, scouting reports, etc.) more than 60 times between March 2013 and June 2014. Correa’s actions first became public knowledge thanks to a Deadspin story, which promptly resulted in the Cardinals firing him.
Former Braves executives John Coppolella and Gordon Blakeley resigned their positions with the team after an investigation by the league into allegations that they had pre-arranged agreements with international amateur signings began in October 2017. Coppolella would be placed on the permanently ineligible list a month later by the league. The Braves would also lose 13 players Coppolella had signed and faced severe restrictions on their international spending for the next three years.
Racism & Intolerance
Former Reds owner Marge Schott was widely recognized around the game. Just the second female owner in league history, Schott was highly visible at Reds games and known just as much for always having her dog with her as she was for her short temper and frugal nature. Beginning with a November 1992 lawsuit and continuing until a May 1996 article in Sports Illustrated, numerous allegations of racist comments and policies — notably against African Americans, Japanese, and Jews — come to light publicly.
Schott’s racist comments resulted in the league suspending her for the entire 1993 season. She would receive a second suspension in June 1998 for the remainder of that season. One year later, facing more possible sanctions from the league, Schott agreed to sell her remaining share of the team.
Former reliever John Rocker made headlines following a December 1999 article in Sports Illustrated in which he attacked New Yorkers, specifically targeting the city’s ethnic minorities as a reason for his dislike of the city. Rocker also made racist remarks during the interview about Asians and a teammate from Curacao. MLB would suspend him for 28 games, though an appeal would reduce it to 14.
Former Blue Jays infielder Yunel Escobar drew plenty of attention after being photographed during a September 2012 game with a homophobic slur written on his eye black. Escobar defended his actions, insisting he meant no harm, and received a three-game suspension from MLB.
Former Mets infielder Daniel Murphy is openly critical of homosexuals following a visit with the team from Billy Bean, MLB’s Ambassador for Inclusion, in March 2015. Bean was the first former player to come out as openly gay following his playing career and spent years working with the league offices before his passing in August 2024. Murphy received a great deal of backlash from fans following his comments and largely refused to speak with the media over what remained of his career.
Former pitcher Curt Schilling had what some might consider a Hall of Fame career if you focus only on his on-field accomplishments, but everything that followed tarnished his reputation and left the HOF voters to largely ignore him based on the famous “character clause.”
Schilling’s post-playing days have mostly centered on social media controversies, where he has argued about politics, evolution, and religion to name just a few subjects. He celebrated a photo circulated out of a November 2016 Donald Trump rally calling for the lynching of journalists. Schilling has also been known to show off pieces of his Nazi memorabilia collection while doing little to hide his anti-Semitic beliefs.
Tampa Bay Rays infielder Taylor Walls goes out of his way on social media to support Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ criticisms of the NCAA for allowing a transgender athlete to compete in a March 2022 swimming event. Walls is addressed by manager Kevin Cash and effectively told to keep off of social media moving forward by the team.
Months later, five Rays players—pitchers Jason Adam, Brooks Raley, Jalen Beeks, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson—refused to participate in the team’s Pride Night in June 2022, citing their religious beliefs. The Rays organization received a great deal of pushback following the pair of incidents, both from fans and advocacy groups alike.
Former reliever Anthony Bass created controversy on social media in May 2023 with an Instagram post criticizing the selling of Pride-themed merchandise while pushing for a national boycott of numerous corporations that supported LGBTQ+ initiatives. Bass is released by the Blue Jays just days later, with GM Ross Atkins admitting that he had simply “become a distraction.”
Drugs (not the performance-enhancing variety)
Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, then with the Rangers, is stopped by customs officers in Toronto in August 1982 and found to have small amounts of cocaine, hashish, and marijuana in his possession. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends him for the remainder of the season and all of the 1983 season.
The MLBPA filed a grievance and Jenkins appealed through an independent arbitrator before the suspension was ultimately overturned two weeks later, allowing Jenkins to return and pitch in what would be his final season.
With cocaine and methamphetamine use becoming more widespread in the mid-1980s, Major League Baseball was hardly immune. One of the sport’s biggest off-field scandals happened in 1985 and came to be known as the Pittsburgh Drug Trials. A grand jury was convened to investigate just how rampant use of the drugs had become around the league and more than a dozen players were called to testify. The players were granted immunity for their participation. Seven Pittsburgh dealers were found guilty of various charges.
Eleven players — Joaquin Andújar, Dale Berra, Enos Cabell, Keith Hernandez, Jeffrey Leonard, Dave Parker, Lonnie Smith, Al Holland, Lee Lacy, Lary Sorensen, and Claudell Washington — ultimately received suspensions following the trials, though the suspensions were commuted in exchange for fines and community service so no games were missed.
Reliever Steve Howe was on the fast track to stardom, getting drafted by the Dodgers in the 1st Round of the 1979 Draft before winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award the following season. Despite the success on the mound, Howe had his demons to battle off the field. He was suspended seven times for issues related to drug and alcohol use before Commissioner Fay Vincent banned him permanently following an arrest in December 1991. Like with Jenkins, the MLBPA filed a grievance and an independent arbitrator ultimately overturned the suspension.
Howe returned to pitch four more seasons before retiring, submitting to daily drug tests as a condition of his reinstatement. Following his release in 1996, he was arrested at the airport for trying to carry a loaded gun onto a flight. Howe died in 2006 in a single car accident, the result of methamphetamines found in his system.
Former pitcher Esteban Loaiza spent 14 seasons in the majors with eight different teams but got involved with trafficking following the end of his playing career. Loaiza was arrested in February 2018 with more than 40 pounds of cocaine in his possession. He pleaded guilty in August to distribution charges and served two years in prison before he was released and deported to Mexico, where he serves as a pitching coach in the Mexican League.
Gambling
Violence and hatred make up most of the above list, but some of baseball’s biggest scandals have centered on gambling.
Rumors of game-fixing first cropped up heading into the 1919 World Series and only grew as the series went on. The Chicago White Sox were heavy favorites, but multiple players agreed to take payouts in exchange for throwing the series against the Reds. Sportswriters during the series were even questioning the legitimacy of the game’s events in as near to real-time as possible.
Questions and allegations followed the team throughout the subsequent season before a grand jury was finally called in late 1920, during which pitcher Eddie Cicotte admitted to his involvement. Cicotte’s admission would be corroborated in even more detail during the trial the next summer. Still, all of the players were found not guilty.
This didn’t stop owners from believing that something had to be done to prevent such a scandal from occurring again, which resulted in Kennesaw Mountain Landis being appointed as the first Commissioner of Baseball to oversee the league. Landis’s first act in his new role was to permanently ban all eight players involved in the “Black Sox Scandal” — Cicotte, Claude Williams, Charles Risburg, Chick Gandil, Happy Felsch, Fred McMullin, Buck Weaver, and Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Almost 80 years after Landis banned the group as one of his first actions on the job, newly appointed Commissioner Fay Vincent also looked to eliminate gambling immediately upon taking over the job. Vincent appointed Jon Dowd to investigate Reds manager Pete Rose, who had allegedly been gambling on games including some involving his Reds team over the prior few seasons.
The Dowd Report found 52 instances where Rose had placed bets on games during the 1987 season. Vincent placed Rose on the permanently ineligible list in August 1989. Rose denied any wrongdoing for nearly two decades before finally changing his tune.
Sports betting ultimately became legalized across the country beginning in the late 2010s, prompting the league to refine and clarify some of its policies. Still, the league was forced to suspend five players in June 2024 for violations involving gambling.
That March, one of the legal sportsbook operators had discovered accounts tied to multiple active players and reported the matter to the league offices. Following an investigation, four players — infielder José Rodríguez and pitchers Michael Kelly, Jay Groome, and Andrew Saalfrank — received one-year suspensions.
The fifth, infielder Tucupita Marcano, was placed on the permanently ineligible list. He was the only one of the group actively on a major league roster when the bets were placed.
That’s 89 names (including owners and executives) out of more than 23,000+ over the sport’s history — less than 0.01%.