-
Kiley McDaniel
-
Jeff Passan
Close
ESPN- ESPN MLB insider
Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
The Washington Nationals have fired an employee who allegedly threw two cups of hot coffee in the face of a female convenience-store employee in the Dominican Republic, the team told ESPN on Saturday.
In a Twitter video posted Friday night, Jazhiel Morel, who was the administrator of the Nationals’ academy in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, was shown filling up coffee cups before exchanging words with the cashier and then throwing the coffee on her.
Morel has agreed to turn himself in to police Monday morning, his lawyer, Rafael Ariza, told Dominican journalist Edith Febles.
“The Washington Nationals learned of this horrific incident earlier today and immediately terminated the employee,” Mike Rizzo, the Nationals’ president of baseball operations and general manager, said in a statement to ESPN on Saturday. “We do not tolerate this type of behavior in our organization.”
The Nationals’ Dominican academy has been a source of significant talent for the defending World Series champions. Among those who have come from the Nationals’ Dominican pipeline: star outfielder Juan Soto, center fielder Victor Robles, reliever Wander Suero, infielder Wilmer Difo and rookie infielder Luis Garcia.
Morel started with the Nationals in 2017 as a video intern at the academy, according to his LinkedIn page. He spent the next two years as an administrative assistant before ascending in November to an administrator, helping run day-to-day operations. He previously played at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.
ESPN’s Enrique Rojas contributed to this report.
