HOUSTON — A decision on the fate of Brandon Taubman will come swiftly, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred indicated on Wednesday.
Taubman, the Astros’ assistant general manager, is under investigation for an incident that occurred shortly after his team eliminated the Yankees in the ALCS last weekend. As first reported by Sports Illustrated, Taubman repeatedly and profanely shouted how glad he was that Houston had acquired Roberto Osuna — the closer who served a 75-game suspension last year for violating the sport’s domestic-violence program — in a 2018 trade. Taubman did this while looking at three female reporters, one of whom wore a purple bracelet recognizing domestic violence and has tweeted phone numbers to women’s services when Osuna takes the mound.
“I haven’t even had an interim report from the investigators. They’re actually at it today,” Manfred said, shortly before World Series Game 2 began. “In general, it is my view that dealing with this, you want to make sure you get all the facts. You want to be as thorough as you possibly can, understand the whole situation. But once you get there, you want to get it behind you. That’s the best I can do.”
A lengthy suspension at minimum appears likely for Taubman, a graduate of Syosset High School on Long Island.
With the notable exception of manager A.J. Hinch, who publicly took accountability, Astros officials have vacillated between trying to smear the SI journalist and offering half-hearted apologies. Manfred said the PR conduct would not be part of his investigation, explaining, “I’m really concerned at this point about the underlying substance of the situation. What the atmosphere was, how it came to be. That’s my focus right now.”
The commissioner added, “We pride ourselves on providing an inclusive harassment-free environment in all of the various aspects of our business. I think it’s a core value for baseball, and I think that we have to be tremendously concerned whenever we have an incident that attracts this much attention.”