LA Angels: 3 Reasons the Halos should pass on Roberto Osuna

On February 1, allegations against Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway became public. Callaway is accused of aggressively pursuing five women, including sending unsolicited messages and inappropriate pictures and thrusting his crotch near a female reporter as she was interviewing him.

Following the report, a spokesperson for the Angels put out a milquetoast statement via their social media. They couldn’t even muster up a cliche/bare-minimum line about how the organization “always strives to create a professional and safe working environment for women”. Not only that, but they didn’t even mention Callaway by name.

The statement has foreshadowed how the following days would play out.

Similar allegations had been made against former Mets general manager Jared Porter. Not long after the report came out, in fact, the next morning, the Mets fired Porter.

It has now been over a week since the Callaway allegations were made public, and he is still ‘suspended’ and under investigation, despite some corroborating evidence already being released. Due to California law, a further investigation is necessary following Callaway’s denial of the incidents.

With the ongoing investigation of suspended pitching coach Mikey Callaway, a Roberto Osuna signing would make no sense whatsoever.

The lack of movement on this process is questionable, and frankly, to say the least, concerning.

Callaway’s lewd behavior has been described as “one of the worst-kept secrets in baseball.” Considering that some of these allegations date back before he joined the Angels coaching staff, it is appalling that the Angels would hire him in the first place. Either they were hoping that these allegations would remain underground or that their background check is not as comprehensive as it should be.

While this investigation is still ongoing, Fernando Ballesteros of Puro Beisbol  reports the Angels are in ‘advanced talks’ with free-agent reliever Roberto Osuna.

At this time, the legitimacy of the rumor is unknown, as prominent reporters have not widely circulated it. However, in the article, it is stated that the author is in direct contact with Osuna’s agents.

To be clear, this article is not informing you the Angels are in talks with Osuna, but that if they indeed are, they need to rethink it seriously.

Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register has somewhat debunked this rumor.

While it’s unclear who Fletcher’s source is, he seems confident the Angels will not sign Osuna. Thank god. It’s unclear at this time who is correct or if both are somewhat correct. The way I see it, there are three possibilities:

1. The Angels are indeed deep in talks with Osuna.
2. The Angels are kicking the tires on a possible signing.
3. There is no validity to the rumor, and the Angels have had no contact with the Osuna camp. If possibilities one and two turn out to be correct, it would be extremely problematic for the organization moving forward.

The past accusations of Roberto Osuna would not be good for the Angels organization.

In May 2018, Osuna was arrested and charged with assaulting Alejandra Roman Cota, their child’s mother. He was placed on leave while both the Toronto Police and MLB investigations were underway. In June of 2018, the MLB concluded their investigation and determined that Osuna violated MLB’s joint domestic violence policy, as outlined in a statement by commissioner Rob Manfred:

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“My office has completed its investigation into the allegation that Roberto Osuna violated Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy on May 8, 2018. Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Osuna violated the Policy and should be subject to discipline in the form of an unpaid suspension that will expire on August 4th.”

In July of 2018, the Blue Jays made the conscious move to trade him to the Astros in exchange for a struggling Ken Giles, along with David Paulino and Hector Perez. The Astros making this trade raised some serious eyebrows.

“We did a lot of background work and whatever we were able to do as third parties. And that’s all I can say,” Former Houston GM Jeff Luhnow. “The due diligence by our front office was unprecedented. We are confident that Osuna is remorseful, has wilfully complied with all consequences related to his past behavior, has proactively engaged in counselling, and will fully comply with our zero tolerance policy related to abuse of any kind.”

The statement itself is contradictory. Luhnow declares that the Astros have a zero-tolerance policy on domestic violence yet sees no issue in tolerating Osuna just if he says he’s ‘sorry’. This type of flip-floppy behavior is unbecoming of a professional sports organization, and they were rightly criticized for acquiring Osuna. It would be wise for the Angels not to follow down the same path.