Rockies SS Jose Reyes "should hear his penalty from MLB for domestic abuse soon, and word is that it'll be at least 60 games and perhaps significantly longer than that," according to MLB Network's Jon Heyman. Sources said that 80 games "may be a fair ballpark estimate." While Reyes was not criminally charged for the incident involving his wife last October in Hawaii, there is "little doubt Reyes will receive at least double the 30-game ban imposed" on Yankees P Aroldis Chapman, as Reyes' offense has "been seen as more serious." It is not known whether MLB and the MLBPA have "agreed on a specific length, or if [MLB Commissioner Rob] Manfred might impose a penalty and let the union decide whether to challenge the length" (FACEBOOK.com, 5/8).
PROFILING PICTURE? In N.Y., Billy Witz notes Chapman, who will be eligible to pitch tonight when the Yankees host the Royals "sought to clarify" comments he made last week "suggesting that Latino players who were being investigated for domestic violence could be a target" of MLB's new policy. He said, "I was not talking about the league or the suspension. I’m talking what I meant in general." Chapman last Tuesday said that Latino players "were a target" of the MLB's new domestic violence policy "because of the money they made and because they were not familiar with the norms and laws" of the U.S. Chapman: "Unfortunately, that is the way it is. We make a lot of money, everyone wants a piece of it, and we end up looking bad. When I had the problem, everyone thinks I did something wrong; in social media, people are saying I hit my girlfriend." Witz notes all four players who have been investigated under baseball’s nascent domestic violence program -- Reyes, Chapman, Dodgers RF Yasiel Puig and Braves LF Hector Olivera -- are Latinos, and three of them are Cuban (N.Y. TIMES, 5/9).
