Andruw Jones was arrested on Christmas morning and charged with battery following an incident in which he allegedly physically abused his wife and told her “I want to kill you.”
That came one week after Jones agreed to a one-year, $3.5 million contract to play in Japan for the Rakuten Eagles, who apparently have no plans to back out of the deal.
“We received a report it was a domestic fight which escalated,” Eagles president Yozo Tachibana said, via Reuters. “Unless there is any more big surprises, we intend to go ahead as planned with his contract.”
According to the police report Jones is accused of dragging his wife down a staircase by her ankles after she tried to get away from him, grabbing her neck, and threatening to kill her, among other things. The incident took place following a Christmas eve party and escalated when, according to the report, Jones’ wife asked him to help assemble a computer table.
Jones’ wife fled to her parents’ house and police described her as having “visible injuries.”
All of which makes Tachibana’s “unless there is any more big surprises” comment sound pretty awful, because it implies what’s already being reported wasn’t “big” enough.