Danny Salazar, one of the bright young stars for the Cleveland Indians, just turned 25 last month and is expected to play a bigger role in the team's starting rotation this upcoming season. However, there's a possibility all of that changes.
According to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Salazar is being investigated for sexual assault stemming from an incident during the early morning of July 23. Catcher Roberto Perez was said to be with Salazar that night, but no complaint was filed against him. Salazar has not been charged.
Those are all the details disclosed at this point.
Indians players came to Cleveland during the weekend of January 23 to attend the annual two-day TribeFest that takes place at Progressive Field. The event was on Saturday and Sunday and fans were able to take a tour of the Indians' club house, listen to Q&A's with players and broadcasters, and even take batting practice in the ballpark batting cages.
According to Zack Meisel of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, the event featured old-timers Dennis Martinez, Charles Nagy and Paul Assenmacher as well as bench coach Sandy Alomar and players Yan Gomes, Cody Allen, Carlos Carrasco, Nick Swisher, Jason Kipnis, Mike Aviles, Trevor Bauer, Michael Bourn, Lonnie Chisenhall, T.J. House, Roberto Perez, Jose Ramirez, Marc Rzepcyznski, Carlos Santana, Bryan Shaw and Salazar.
At this point it's unknown if Salazar has a previous criminal record. The Indians signed the left-hander out of the Dominican Republic back in 2006 and he's spent eight seasons with the team (115 games in the minors and 30 in the majors). In 30 starts with the team in 2013 and 2014, Salazar owns an 8-11 record with a 3.89 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 185 strikeouts in 162 innings.
According to manager Terry Francona, the youngster has been enduring an active offseason as he prepares for 2015. He arrived at the team's spring training facility in Arizona much earlier this year.
"We wanted to get Danny there about a month, six weeks ahead of time," Francona said, via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. "He's still young and he has so few innings compared to everybody else. ... He's had a habit of, by the end of the first half he's ready to go. Even in his Minor League seasons, it took him a while to kind of ramp up into the season. When you're in Double-A, that's not the end of the world, but when you're pitching with us, those are costing you wins. So, we were thrilled that he bought into it and he wanted to get out there, because I think it will really help him."
UPDATE: No charges will be filed against Salazar, according to Bastian.
