Spring Training 2023

What we know about Alex Verdugo’s involvement in a 2015 assault investigation

The incident sat out of public view until last February, and extends far beyond Verdugo.

Much of Alex Verdugo's first meeting with the Boston press Saturday was dominated by questions about his involvement in a 2015 incident in Arizona.

By Jon Couture

February 17, 2020

On Saturday in Fort Myers, new Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo was asked about “an incident, when you were in the minor leagues, in Arizona.” It sparked nearly seven minutes of question and answer with the Boston media, the 23-year-old appearing to be left searching for the right words, and frequently coming back to some of the same ones.

“My name being mentioned in the allegations … it hurts. It really does hurt,” he said. “I was cleared of any wrongdoing. Of anything. And with that being said, it was a terrible thing that happened, but, I’m really just, it was in my past. It’s something that, I’ve grown from it, I’ve learned from it.”

“I was cleared of anything wrongdoing. Obviously, that still doesn’t … this is just tough to talk about because it’s such, it’s hard for me and it’s, just, I don’t want this to kind of keep going. I want to start my time in Boston.”

“I don’t think there’s much further to comment on it. There was an investigation. There [were] a lot of things that [were] done with it, and like I said, I was cleared of anything wrongdoing, and if I was around for anything that had happened, I would have put a stop to it. I would have helped out. I would have done something.”

Asked finally about who had cleared him of wrongdoing, Verdugo cited a “police investigation” and “a team thing, too,” before turning the discussion to his upbringing, and looking ahead.

“Obviously, there’s mixed views on everything. It is what it is. People will spin however they want to spin it,” Verdugo said. “But like I said, I know who I am as a person. I’m very confident with that. I have five sisters, two brothers. I have a very big family, so I was raised the right way. I was growing up very close to my sisters, and like I said, I treat women with the utmost respect. That’s why I say, having allegations like this hurts. Having my name mentioned in it hurts. It puts emotional stress on you. I takes a lot out of you, but with that being said, that’s in the past. I would really like to focus on baseball. Focus on my next opportunity here in the Boston Red Sox, and I’m looking forward to getting started here and really letting my play, my passion for the game show people who I really am.”

He arrives the biggest piece of the return for Mookie Betts and David Price, each world champions, and the former one of the best players the franchise has ever produced. Verdugo arrives broken, to boot, shelved since Aug. 5 with a stress fracture in his lower back that will almost certainly delay his debut beyond Opening Day. The list of players not in Astros uniforms with more focus on them this season will be a short one.

And then there’s this “incident.” What reportedly happened at the Hampton Inn in Glendale, Ariz., in the early morning of Feb. 24, 2015, is known to some degree thanks to a police report and subsequent investigation.

But nowhere near completely.

“On the macro level, I think the story is more about the aftermath and the handling of it,” said Nick Francona, the Dodgers assistant director of player development at the time, on The Kirk Minihane Show earlier this month. “I think part of that is because we don’t really have a good idea what happened at the time because there was an effort not to know what happened.”

The story did not become public until last February, nearly four years after it happened. But it begins with that police report.

“Alex” is the first investigative lead in the report, obtained by the Globe, not listed as a suspect in either the sexual abuse or intentional assault offenses outlined. It was written following the shoplifting arrest of a 17-year-old, reported as a runaway three years prior and who was in the custody of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety at the time. The teen told a DCS employee that she “had been partying with two Dodgers baseball players and two other females” the prior week, that “she was provided alcohol and became sick,” and that “she was filmed getting beat up by the two females and the video was posted on Snapchat.”

This led to a police interview, and a darker story. The two women were friends from Facebook she had only personally met a few times, and the Dodgers she didn’t know at all. The five — all but her between 18-21, and who “did not know that she was only 17,” partially out of fear she’d be turned in as a runaway — drove to the Hampton Inn to party. Pressured, she “quickly drank half a bottle of Ciroc vodka.”

The 17-year-old soon began feeling sick, and lied down on the other minor leaguer’s bed while the two women and “Alex” were in the bathroom. At which point said player, laying down with her, “[took] advantage,” fondling her inside both her bra and the front of her pants.

“After a couple minutes of being touched,” the report relays, “the rest of the group exited the bathroom and [player] got off the bed. She said [player] was probably frustrated and gave up when the others entered the room.”

Still feeling sick and “going in and out of consciousness,” the 17-year-old moved to another bed, on which she promptly threw up. One of the women “began yelling at her, pushing her head into the bed, and throwing water on her,” then threw the victim to the ground to try to get her out of the room. The two women then “began punching and kicking her repeatedly in the face and body until she exited the hotel room.”

Despite police seeing a “faint bruise” on the victim’s left arm and “minor swelling” around her face and eye, and a case manager at DCS wanting charges filed, none were. The 17-year-old ran away from her foster home soon after the police interview, and when police finally reestablished contact in May via another arrest, the teen declined to be interviewed.

“It wouldn’t help with her situation now,” an officer relayed the 17-year-old telling her, “and was so long ago that she didn’t want to deal with it.”

“Alex” is not mentioned beyond being described as dating one of the women.

When the Washington Post first reported on the night last February, it was in connection to “oversight of the Dodgers’ minor league and scouting operations” as part of a federal probe into Major League Baseball’s Latin operations. “Told of girl’s assault at spring training hotel, Gabe Kapler, Dodgers didn’t alert police,” the headline blared.

Kapler, hired the prior November as Dodgers director of player development, was also referenced in the police report, which the Post relayed in depth. He was contacted by email by both the 17-year-old and her grandmother, the teen noting “your player . . . videotaped it all” and neither conveying more than the physical assault. Subsequent reporting on the incident in the Arizona Republic and Sports Illustrated — the latter part of a larger piece about Francona’s distrust of Kapler, and the Marine captain’s eventual blackballing from the sport — didn’t further investigate the recording angle, nor did either story name the players, since neither were charged.

Longtime minor-league reporter Jessica Quiroli, however, did. Last Feb. 14, she self-published “Dodgers After Dark: The Sexual Assaults MLB Never Investigated, A Team’s Culture Unexamined,” which focused heavily on the February 2015 incident. The piece, which in her own words relies on “details in the official police report, emails provided to me [and] emails that were made public prior to my story,” reports Verdugo as the “Alex” and walks through the police account.

Both players, Quiroli wrote, “did nothing to stop the [physical] assault and were apparently so entertained by the violence happening to this defenseless girl, that either … or both of them posted the video to social media.”

Asked by Minihane earlier this month about Verdugo’s involvement, Francona relayed some of his meeting with him, then 19.

“There’s kind of the story that Alex gave Gabe Kapler and myself at the time, was that he was passed out while the alleged assault was going on. The version that eventually came out in the police report was that Alex and a couple other girls that were with them that night were in … the bathroom of the hotel room. So that’s, there’s a lot of discrepancies going on,” Francona said. “I never heard a version that Alex was involved in a sexual assault.

“I think it was probably an episode of poor judgment on his part. My take on it at the time with, and I spent a lot of time with Alex, he was drafted right out of high school [at 18 in 2014] and was on the younger side for that, even. And had a bit of a reputation coming in as well. I ended up spending a lot of time with him in the aftermath of this, trying to mentor him and help him out a little bit and get him on the right path. And one of the things that was a pretty clear takeaway for me was that the other individual involved, and there’d been a couple other data points that had led to this conclusion as well, was that he was just hanging out with kind of some of the wrong older players that were influencing him.”

Asked pointedly by Minihane whether it was Verdugo who posted the assault on Snapchat, Francona said “that was my understanding,” then later clarified he had not seen the video himself.

“To repeat what I said earlier on is my recollection from the discussions, I believe Kapler might’ve seen it,” he said. “I’m not positive, but I know that that had come up, and that was … my recollection was that it was Alex, but I’m not 100 percent sure of that.”

Kapler, in a statement on his personal blog following the Post report, outlined the incident as he understood it following conversations with the 17-year-old’s grandmother and the two Dodgers players. It includes that “one player [was] passed out on the bed” and “the other player shared a video clip of the incident on Snapchat.” He also makes clear he did not learn of the alleged sexual assault until asked about it by the Post.

The police report never references any conversations with Verdugo, their investigation largely stifled before it started. Kapler — passed over for the Dodgers managerial job in November 2015, but subsequently hired by the Phillies and, this November, the Giants — at first attempted to organize a dinner meeting between the players and the 17-year-old; “we believe we can teach valuable lessons to all involved through this method of follow up,” he wrote in an email to the grandmother. (The 17-year-old refused, believing she was “being set up for something bad.”)

Kapler didn’t go to police or MLB, either. In Sports Illustrated’s words, he “required [the players] to undergo training for ‘being a good teammate.’ Specifically, the players were assigned to write essays about Dodgers history, take nature walks, practice yoga and meditation, clean the team’s weight room, and watch motivational videos.” The incident was kept in house, as similar incidents were even after baseball’s August 2015 joint domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse policy mandated they be reported.

As for Verdugo, the story was scarcely covered last season in Los Angeles, during which he impressed teammates with his “youthful enthusiasm.” Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, in announcing the trade, said the Red Sox did “extensive due diligence” and would not have moved forward had they been uncomfortable.

Quiroli scoffed at that, noting “even MLB didn’t.”

“The point, as I’ve said so many times,” Quiroli tweeted on Saturday night, “is unanswered questions. And lack of accountability.”




Those questions will likely remain unanswered, given Verdugo’s words, barring a change of heart from the runaway at the center of the incident. The Post sought to contact her before its story a year ago, but was unsuccessful, noting she “still lives in the Glendale area, according to court records, which listed her as ‘transient’ in an unrelated case in December [2018].”

It’s an ending that serves no one well.

“The other guy was a couple years older and that can happen, especially in professional sports, when you’ve got guys coming in and the wrong person takes you under their wing,” Francona told Minihane, “and I think Alex exercised some pretty poor judgement in that regard, and he needed to grow up based on a lot of different things.

“I don’t think he was the biggest villain in all this in any stretch. I don’t think it reflects well on him, either.”

There's really only one other lowlife who fits the description of scum sucking dirtbag making up innuendo to deflect from his own team's culpability. That would be someone who hid an injury before signing with the Dodgers.

Joe Kelly says 2018 Red Sox would have 'swept through the playoffs' if they actually cheated

Henry McKenna

April 19, 2020 11:24 am ET

While the MLB’s investigation into the Boston Red Sox’s cheating scandal from 2018 remains unresolved, players from that squad are denying, denying, denying.

Second baseman Rafael Devers and World Series MVP Steve Pearce are among the Red Sox players who have denied cheating. Former Red Sox and current L.A. Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly chimed in during a recent interview with WEEI.

The Red Sox used video replay room illegally on the path to winning the World Series during the 2018 season, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. The team already fired manager Alex Cora for his involvement in the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal — Cora was the Astros’ bench coach during their marred World Series season.

But if you asked the Red Sox, there was no foul play during 2018. Here’s what Kelly told WEEI, via WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford:

“From the get-go, I just thought it was laugh out loud funny. Now that this is the last thing on people’s mind obviously with how the world is right now. Whenever the investigation is done I’m interested in seeing what is in the investigation. If there is cheating involved with how good our team was we should have won every single out. We should have not even lost an inning if there was some good cheating involved, which would have been a lot more fun because we would have won in four. We would have swept through the playoffs and made it really, really fast and been able to go to Hawaii or go to Mexico and go on vacation a lot sooner than we did.”

Considering the strength of Kelly’s remarks, it will be fascinating to see what — if anything — the league finds from their investigation of the Sox.

Dodgers Already Seeing Positive Signs with Noah Syndergaard's Velocity Early in Camp

This is a good early sign.

NOAH CAMRAS6 HOURS AGO

The Dodgers added RHP Noah Syndergaard this offseason, with the hopes that getting him in with the team's pitching coaches would turn him back into his former All-Star self.

It was a little bit of a daunting task, especially because his biggest issue was a drop in velocity. However, in his introductory press conference, he said he thought he could get his velocity back up. And so far, according to Dave Roberts, things seem to be going well.



If Syndergaard can get his velocity back up, he could potentially get back to his All-Star form that had him as one of the most unhittable pitchers in baseball.

And even if he doesn't get all the way back up to triple digits, the Dodgers' pitching coaches have been known to work their magic and get pitchers to be the best version of themselves.

Syndergaard saw what the Dodgers did with Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney last year, and wanted to get that sort of revitalization with his career. In his introductory press conference, he had the famous line where he said everything the Dodgers touch turn to gold.

We'll see if Syndergaard becomes the next veteran to turn back the clock, and turn into Noah Syndergold. Eh, I've done better.

Dr. Daisy’s diagnosis can only lead us to believe that the Catman will be done after a few starts and join the ever growing list of Dodger starters requiring a surgical procedure.

I know I’ve mentioned this before about four man rotations, complete games and 25 - 30 win seasons, but how many of those guys required Tommy John?

Did Nolan Ryan? Tom Seaver? Randy Johnson? Orel? These are just names off the top of my head and I truthfully don’t know one way or the other on any of them.

But I DO know that a good deal of the pitchers of those “days of yore” went their entire careers without going under the knife.

Hell - the procedure itself wasn’t ever done or named until it was done to a pitcher of our era, Tommy John!

Yes - nobody was throwing constant fastballs at 100 + in those days. And what was SO wrong with that?

Pitchers threw more curves and off speed stuff to FOOL the hitters and get outs without having to throw heaters every other pitch.

But that was when you could sit, watch and enjoy a 2 - 1 or 3 - 2 game in a couple of hours. I distinctly remember going to and watching dozens of two hour games.

Now it’s ALL about action and most importantly, scoring RUNS.

Manturd wants to “ shorten” games with his pitch clock, throws to first, softball extra innings rule - but NONE of these are going to have much, if any effect on the three plus hour marathons we are now accustomed to.

You wanna shorten game times and cut down on pitcher injuries and surgeries?

Every team has at least one pitching coach, with some carrying assistants and bullpen coaches.

TEACH THESE GUYS HOW TO PITCH AGAIN!!! Teach them how to “fool” hitters and throw multiple different pitches.

Will it ever happen? Of course not! That might cut into the “action”, nightly homer parades and highlights and of course, scoring, the Turds main priority.

I’d rather watch a 2 - 1 pitchers duel than a 15 - 14 softball game, but that’s just me.

Todays short attention span bunch would probably leave after an inning or two or turn to their hand computers (which they do already) for “other” entertainment.

I miss baseball - not the crap we’ve been forced to watch dismantled, disguised and pornographied (is that a word?) by “new rules” the last couple of decades.

Just the game I grew up playing and loving.

GO DODGERS!!!

Personally, I prefer games that aren't manipulated by new rules or altering bases or gloves.  I don't care what the score it as long as the players play without any new gimmicks cos fans like this or that.  So what if teams dont' steal many bases?  Are new rules gonna change that fact?  And who told Manjerk that fans want the game sped up?  Oh, bring back Uncle Bud!  With all his faults, he didn't change any on-field rules.  

Speed guns were the worst thing to ever happen to pitchers. Don Sutton used to throw in the upper 80's. Then he would pop one in there at 92-93 mph. It looked a lot faster because of the junk he was throwing before. That was the ART of pitching. Keeping hitters off balance. 

Now the emphasis is to force hitters to commit before they know what's coming. It's no wonder there are so many injuries. Remember that guy who came up with the Mets? Harvey. Matt Harvey. I always think of him when modern pitching comes up. 

www.fangraphs.com/players/matt-harvey/11713/stats?position=P

He threw sliders in the 90's. What does that do to your arm?

www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harvema01.shtml

It took it's toll. 

That entire class they had that was supposed to dominate. Harvey, DeGrom, Matz, Syndergaard. None of them produced like predicted. Injury after injury. 

Dodgers' Jason Heyward: Has leg up for final OF spot
Rotowire 3 HRS AGO
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Heyward "absolutely" has a leg up in the competition for the final outfield roster spot, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Heyward made a significant swing change over the offseason, and Roberts noted that he liked how it looked during live batting practice Monday in camp. The 33-year-old accepted a minor-league contract from Los Angeles back in December after getting cut loose by the Cubs. He's slashed just .211/.280/.326 in 504 major-league plate appearances since the beginning of the 2021 campaign, but perhaps the Dodgers can work some of their magic on him in 2023.

Dodgers' David Peralta: Had back surgery in offseason
Rotowire 17 HRS AGO
Peralta underwent surgery to address a herniated disc in his back over the winter, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.

Peralta missed a few games due to lower back tightness last June, but this is the first report of the herniated disc and consequent surgery. The veteran outfielder stated Monday that the discomfort caused by the injury came "out of nowhere," though it's uncertain when it first cropped up. Peralta appears to be doing fine now, and he's expected to fill a part-time platoon role in his first season with the Dodgers, giving the team an established bat against right-handed pitching.

Dodgers' Miguel Vargas: Suffers hairline fracture to pinky
Rotowire FEB 20, 2023
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts revealed Monday that Vargas suffered a hairline fracture to the pinky finger of his right hand and won't resume swinging the bat for at least a few days, Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA reports.

A diagnosis for the pinky injury Vargas suffered while fielding a grounder earlier Monday wasn't initially provided, but Roberts provided more clarity on the matter when he met with the media following the Dodgers' workout. Though the nature of the injury isn't ideal, Vargas will still be able to take part in fielding drills over the next few days, which should help him in his bid to secure an everyday role at second base heading into Opening Day. According to Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register, the Dodgers don't have a precise timeline for when Vargas will resume swinging, but Roberts suggested that it may come down to a matter of pain tolerance on the part of the 23-year-old.

Dodgers' Miguel Rojas: Looks healthy for spring
Rotowire FEB 20, 2023
Rojas (hand) was spotted taking part in fielding drills at shortstop Monday during the Dodgers' spring workout in Arizona, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports.

Rojas underwent surgery in mid-January to remove a loose piece of bone between the thumb and index finger on his right hand, but his ability to field grounders and throw across the infield Monday suggests he's at full strength for his first spring training with the Dodgers. After being acquired from the Marlins in January and then signing a two-year extension less than a month later, the 33-year-old Rojas is clearly valued by the Dodgers, but he's still likely to be ticketed for a utility infield role when Los Angeles is at full strength. The Dodgers are giving top prospect Miguel Vargas (finger) a chance to lock down an everyday role at second base in spring training, while Gavin Lux is shifting from the keystone to shortstop in the wake of Trea Turner's move to Philadelphia this offseason. The presence of Vargas and Lux looks as though it'll block Rojas from seeing steady reps at either middle-infield spot.

Dodgers' Daniel Hudson: Completes bullpen session
Rotowire FEB 20, 2023
Hudson (knee/ankle) completed a bullpen session Monday, David Vassegh of AM 570 LA Sportsreports.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Vassegh after the session that he doesn't believe Hudson is far behind the other relievers currently in camp. The 35-year-old reliever is dealing with tendinitis in his right ankle, after missing the majority off the 2022 campaign because of a left ACL tear. If healthy, Hudson has a chance to see a good amount of save chances for the Dodgers during the 2023 season.