In Light Of Astros Acquiring Roberto Osuna Who's Suspended For Assaulting A Woman, Let's Look Back At Justin Verlander's Reaction To An Astros Prospect Assaulting A Woman Earlier This Year

In case you missed it, the Houston Astros traded for former Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna yesterday, who is currently serving a suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy after he was arrested for assaulting a woman. People in Houston, unsurprisingly, are not happy about this, as some things should be placed above winning. Like, I dunno, morals.

I can’t imagine very many fans are going to find it easy to root for this guy during a postseason run. I also find it pretty fucked up that Robinson Cano is ineligible to play in the postseason for the Mariners because he failed a PED test, yet Osuna is eligible to play in the postseason after assaulting a woman, but that’s an entirely different issue. He beat up a woman, but at least he didn’t take steroids! Phew!

Here’s what Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow had to say after acquiring Osuna yesterday.

Guys, it’s fine. He’s changed. He’s sorry for beating up a girl. Definitely a whole new person now. This has nothing to do with the fact that he’s one of the game’s best closers and that we’re completely sweeping this under the rug that he assaulted a woman and is a terrible human being. This past March, former Astros prospect Danry Vasquez was caught on camera assaulting a woman, and here’s what Astros pitchers Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers had to say about it.

Fuck you, man. You don’t deserve to be in the game of baseball. He should be in jail.

I would imagine that if Verlander and McCullers felt this way about Vasquez that their feelings about Osuna can’t be too different. My question now is, did Luhnow consult any of the players in the Astros clubhouse before pulling the trigger on a move like this? I would have a hard time believing that he did. And if he did, then how did the trade come to fruition if this is how the guys in the clubhouse felt about Vasquez?

One would hope that these Astros players are going to be asked about this, but now that Osuna is there and there’s nothing they can do about it, I’d be surprised if they still openly spoke out against their own teammate, although most if not all would respect the hell out of that.

Update: Verlander was asked about it and here’s what he had to say: