A’s fans don’t seem thrilled the team traded for a domestic abuser

Billy Beane traded for a guy who could make Oakland’s bullpen the nastiest in baseball, for reasons that extend beyond sports.

There’s no questioning Billy Beane. He’s the father of Moneyball and helped revolutionize the game of baseball. When he makes a deal, or drafts a quarterback to play outfield, you just have to trust him.

That’s what makes Oakland trading for Jeurys Familia so problematic. It presents a moral quandary for fans: They can root for a guy that might help the A’s make the World Series, but by doing so are setting aside his past with domestic violence.

Familia was arrested last November after police determined he was involved with a domestic dispute that ended in violence. Reports say Familia caused bodily harm, but his case was later dismissed. No legal punishment ensued, but he was suspended for the first 15 games of last season because of the case and his involvement.

It’s a case we’ve seen before across all sports. A player is accused of domestic violence, but because the case is dismissed — for whatever reason — there’s room for fans to defend the player as falsely accused. It’s a tight wire next to a slippery slope, one that presents a loose thread always there to tug on.

That’s what A’s fans are dealing with now that Familia has been traded for. There’s no doubting the baseball side of this is fantastic for fans. Familia joins an already phenomenal bullpen that smothers teams almost effortlessly. Riding a bullpen through October is a blueprint that the Yankees used with great success last year, and Oakland might use against the Bombers in a Wild Card game. The Cubs made a similar deal two years ago, acquiring Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees for Gleyber Torres and their soul. The result was the first World Series in 108 years.

But not every fan is willing to easily dismiss Familia’s past simply because it makes their baseball team better. While no one is going as far as to turn in their Fan Card, many are speaking out about how upset and disappointed they are that their team would dance with the devil. Mets fans weren’t passing on a chance to remind everyone about their team’s lack of care about domestic violence either.

Even Cubs fans relished in Chapman blowing a Game 7 save so that his heroics weren’t part of the Cubs curse-breaking narrative.

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Familia’s case was dismissed, this is a fact. He was also arrested and charged with domestic abuse based on evidence police collected. The assault didn’t happen on the diamond or at the stadium, but it will be carried with Familia everywhere he goes, from coast-to-coast.