Full credit to the Florida Marlins ; not only have they found a way to overshadow the furor over their new, hideously ugly team logo, but they’ve finally found a more reasonable way to jettison a player from their big league roster than punishing him for tweeting. In what might rank as one of the stranger stories of this or any other season, the Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer reports reliever Leo Nunez has been suspended and placed on MLB’s restricted list…because he isn’t Leo Nunez.
A person familiar with Nunez’s immigration status, however, said the reliever has been playing under an assumed name, and the issue has prompted him to return to his native Dominican Republic.
Nunez might have been aware of the issue as far back as July, the source told The Herald.
“I can’t yet comment,” said Nunez’s agent, Andy Mota. “This is very recent. I don’t want to say anything at all.”
A source told The Associated Press that Nunez’s real name is Juan Carlos Oviedo, and he is 29, a year older than listed in the Marlins’ media guide.
Pat Courtney, senior vice president of public relations for Major League Baseball, said all he could add regarding Nunez was that he had been placed on the restricted list for “personal reasons, and it doesn’t involve baseball.”
Not to challenge Mr. Spencer’s version of events, but I’m guessing that Juan Carlos Oviedo was aware a little earlier than this past July that he wasn’t in fact, named Leo Nunez.
I thought they were supposed to play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back of the jersey. That would’ve been my defense and I think most baseball writers would be ok with that reasoning.