MLB teams eliminate top prospect from draft boards as criminal history surfaces

Luke Heimlich was one of the top prospects in the upcoming 2017 MLB draft. He was ranked 43rd overall on Baseball America’s top-500 list, which is no small thing. “Was” is the operative word in both of those sentences, however: Last week, in a story in The Oregonian, it was revealed that the Oregon State Beavers’ ace is a registered sex offender, who plead guilty in 2012 to molesting a 6-year-old family member.

The reason this took so long to get out is because Heimlich apparently failed to register his sex offender status in April, which put the story on The Oregonian’s radar. Heimlich asked not to pitch on Friday, his scheduled day during the 2017 NCAA baseball tournament, as he felt it would be a “distraction” to his team.

Professional sports teams are known for turning a blind eye toward criminal behavior if they think a player can help them win, and MLB is no exception. The Mets signed Jose Reyes specifically because his domestic violence arrest made him an inexpensive addition. The Mariners pretended they didn’t know anything about Josh Lueke’s sexual violence when they traded for him. The Yankees traded for Aroldis Chapman, knowing his own domestic violence suspension would reduce the cost, and then they traded him for more than they gave up to get him at the July deadline. The Cubs acquired Chapman from the Yankees because the suspension was over and they could leverage him into winning a World Series, ghoul status be damned.

Heimlich might be where MLB draws the line. Draft expert Christopher Crawford told SB Nation that he “stopped asking” if Heimlich was on teams’ draft boards “after team seven said he’s off the board.” John Manuel, per that earlier Baseball America story, has also heard from “several teams” that Heimlich is no longer under consideration anywhere in the draft.

This doesn’t mean that Heimlich absolutely will not be drafted. All it takes is one team thinking like the Mets did about Reyes, and suddenly, Heimlich is a professional baseball player.

Audrey Stark has already detailed why there is still fear that Heimlich could be drafted despite the fact that he’s a registered sex offender who molested a 6-year-old family member. Over the next three days, all 30 MLB teams have the opportunity to let Heimlich pass by, rather than excusing his behavior and status because he’s now inexpensive and talented.

We know at least seven teams no longer have Heimlich on their board — let’s hope the rest of the league has followed suit by the time all 40 rounds have concluded.