Carlos Marmol Assault Allegations Update

I’m far from a lawyer and never really plan on figuring out the court system the hard way, but it would seem that Carlos Marmol‘s domestic assault case in the Dominican Republic is being bumped up to a higher court ruling.

July 6, 2012; New York, NY, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Marmol (49) throws a pitch during the ninth inning of a game against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Marmol has also filed a counter case against his accuser for blackmail and extortion.

A hearing was supposed to be held yesterday that could have potentially cleared Marmol’s name but that hearing apparently never happened. From what little information could be deciphered from the Spanish documents (my Spanish is rusty at best) the case will be heard from a higher court authority and they will be the ones to render a verdict in this case. Again, I’m not a lawyer.

Despite the delay in the court proceedings, Marmol’s agent remains adamant that the pitcher will be on his plane to Phoenix today to report to spring training on time. We don’t have an exact timeline for this issue, so much of it remains grey.

Cubs President of Baseball Operations has backed Marmol from the beginning and continues to support his closer:

"All the information we could gather supports Carlos’ contention that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. We expect this matter to be behind him soon."

It’s not exactly the ideal start to spring training for Marmol or the Cubs, but this isn’t always rare in baseball. You may remember last season when Starlin Castro endured a similar situation and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

As far as operations go, we should still expect to see Marmol at spring training. These allegations don’t really hurt his trade value until he fails to start playing baseball, so I’m not too worried about this one.