Roberto Osuna

Jays swiftly cancel t-shirt giveaway after Roberto Osuna arrested

Toronto Police have confirmed that Blue Jays pitcher Roberto Osuna was arrested and charged with assault on Tuesday morning — just two days before his team was scheduled to hand out thousands of T-shirts with his name on them.

Talk about bad timing.

Osuna, 23, was signed by Toronto out of Mexico when he was just 16 years old. He has since become a star reliever and earlier this year set a major league record for the youngest to save 100 career games.

After being charged with one count of assault against a woman, the closer was placed on administrative leave this afternoon by Major League Baseball.

"MLB takes all allegations of this nature very seriously," wrote the league in a statement. "We are investigating the circumstances and have placed Roberto Osuna on Administrative Leave in accordance with the Joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy."

The Jays had been planning to give away 15,000 Osuna T-shirts to the first 15,000 fans attending a game against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, though they've since announced that this will no longer happen.

The team says it fully supports the league's decision to suspend their closer, and that they are "taking the matter extremely seriously."

Still, nothing was officially announced regarding the T-shirt giveaway in the hours after news of Osuna's arrest and some fans were getting pretty riled up about it.

"Dear @BlueJays, I have tickets to the May 10th game and was looking forward to getting my Osuna t-shirt. Not any more," wrote one fan on Twitter. "Given we're in the #MeToo era this promotion needs to be cancelled irrespective of his guilt or innocence."

"Well @BlueJays, we're waiting," wrote another. "Immediate suspension of Osuna, cancellation of Thursday's Osuna T-shirt night and a significant donation to support victims of domestic violence seems like a good start."

Others understood that the Toronto Blue Jays were likely very busy dealing with the parts of the scandal that fall beyond the T-shirt giveaway.

Some people are still making jokes about the T-shirt situation, but most are just saddened by the news of Osuna's arrest.

"If the allegations are true, then f--k Osuna man, I don't care how good you are at baseball, you never touch a woman," wrote one fan. "He was on path to have such a dynasty in Toronto, too."

"Innocent until proven guilty," wrote another. "But if this is true. I've lost respect for you Osuna! So disappointed."

Osuna is scheduled to appear in court on June 18.

Right-handed pitcher Jake Petricka has been recalled from the Buffalo Bisons to play in his absence.

The Jays announced at 4 p.m. on Tuesday that they would be giving out Yangervis Solarte shirts instead of the Osunas.

Lead photo by

Toronto Blue Jays


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