Hector Olivera began a minor-league rehabilitation assignment Friday and is eligible to rejoin the Braves on Aug. 2, but team officials said there’s no guarantee when or even if the suspended left fielder will play for them again.
Olivera was suspended 82 games by Major League Baseball after he was arrested and charged with assault and battery April 13 following an alleged domestic-violence incident at the Braves’ team hotel in Arlington, Va. Braves general manager John Coppolella said the Braves have tried to trade Olivera and could release him.
“We told Hector the same thing: There just isn’t a guarantee” that he’ll play for the Braves again, said John Hart, Braves president of baseball operations. “There’s certainly going to be things we’re going to be looking at off the field, and the progress that we think he’s made. The work ethic’s been good down there. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Olivera, 31, has been working out at the team’s minor league headquarters outside Orlando for nearly a month, and Friday was the first day he was permitted to play in a minor league game in accordance with the MLB suspension.
He is scheduled to spend three more days playing in Florida before continuing his rehab assignment Tuesday with Triple-A Gwinnett. But after that, Hart said there was no further timetable for his potential return.
Coppolella told the Journal-Constitution’s Mark Bradley earlier this week, “The Olivera trade has not worked out as we hoped, both on and off the field. The struggles at the major league level are frustrating, but the domestic violence incident is appalling. We will evaluate his future once the suspension is lifted, but we have tried to trade him and have considered cutting him. Even if he were the best player in baseball, what he did is totally unacceptable.”
He has hit .245 and produced just a .674 OPS through the first 30 games of his major league career.
“We don’t have any plan here as of yet as of what’s going to happen with Hector, as far as bringing him back or recalling him,” Hart said. “I can say this, with all that’s gone on with this, as disappointing as it’s been, I think Hector has used this time productively. We’ve been comfortable with the steps that he has taken certainly off the field, which has been very important to us. And obviously the work he’s put in on the field. I think he’s making an honest effort to try to put himself back and sort of resurrect his career.
“But we don’t have any timeframe, any timetable. There’s a lot of things we can do.”
Entering 2016, the Braves owed Olivera $32.5 million over the final five years of a six-year, $62.5 million contract he signed with the Dodgers in March 2015, after defecting from Cuba and being declared a free agent. The Dodgers traded him about four months after signing him, swallowing a $28 million signing bonus and his first year’s salary.
Olivera has been a tremendous disappointment for the Braves since he was acquired in a three-team, 13-player trade in July 2015 that sent former Braves infield prospect Jose Peraza and left-hander Alex Wood, among others, to the Dodgers.
Whether he plays again for the Braves, it’s believed they are responsible for the other $30.5 million owed through 2020 to Olivera — all but the $2.03 million he lost during the suspension. His contract was guaranteed, like most baseball contracts, and misdemeanor charges do not nullify such contracts.
Hart was asked if Olivera expressed contrition and told the Braves he was sorry about the incident, in which was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery April 13 after police said a female acquaintance who called 911 was visibly bruised and was later treated at a local hospital.
“Absolutely,” Hart said. “I met with Hector down there probably two or three weeks ago. But I think at the end of it, I think it’s time for Hector to be the guy to speak for Hector. This is where we’re at right now. … I’m sure he’ll get a lot of those questions when he gets to Gwinnett, and if and when he comes back here.”
Olivera was placed on one-week paid leave by MLB immediately after the arrest, and the paid leave was later extended two more weeks while MLB continued its investigation, before the suspension was announced by commissioner Rob Manfred, who has broad powers to levy suspensions under baseball’s domestic-violence policy.
Olivera also agreed to make a “significant contribution” to one or more charitable organizations focused on preventing and treating survivors of domestic violence, and MLB required Olivera to participate in a confidential and comprehensive evaluation and treatment program supervised by its joint policy board.
“He’s been involved in a lot of different things — education, volunteering,” Hart said. “There’s a lot of things that he’s done on his own and some things that we’ve assisted with. But again, I think those would be questions for him when he comes along.”
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