Should anyone sign Luke Heimlich?

I mentioned this briefly in today’s Morning Report, but the Kansas City Royals are reportedly considering signing Oregon State University left-hander Luke Heimlich.

Heimlich has been a superb starting pitcher the last two springs for the Beavers and was on the way to being a first round pick in the 2017 draft until his conviction for child molestation came to light. He was 15 at the time; the victim was six. No one drafted him in ‘17 and no one drafted him in ‘18 either, although more than one team was reportedly sniffing around in the weeks up to the draft. I suspect the Royals aren’t the only team looking at him as a non-drafted free agent.

This is a nasty topic and one that I’ve avoided discussing on this forum, but with a Heimlich signing being a possibility, I don’t think we can dodge it any longer. People have been asking my opinion on it. So here it is.

I don’t have an objective conclusion here, for a good reason as you’ll see in a few moments. But some bullet points:

****He plead guilty and was legally convicted.
****He denies his guilt and says the plea bargain was to avoid a family-destroying trial.
****He completed everything the court asked him to do.
****There’s a chance he didn’t really do it.
****There’s also a chance that he did do it.
****Statistics are not on his side; most sexual abuse allegations are true, especially from children as young as the reported victim (age 4-6).
****Nonetheless, it is entirely possible that he didn’t do it.
****Even if he did do it, he was 15 at the time. With proper therapy, recidivism for offenders in that age cohort is quite low from everything I’ve read. He’s unlikely a threat to society at this point even if he did do it.
****He has the right to make a living.

All that’s true.

But you see, ultimately they don’t matter to me. All of the bullet points above are about Heimlich. None of them are about the victim.

And ultimately I cannot get the victim out of my mind.

I myself am a sexual abuse survivor. The person who did it to me is long dead and I’ve done a lot of healing over the years. But every time the topic of Luke Heimlich comes up, well, I can’t analyze it. The whole thing make me sick.

And that’s where I am on Luke Heimlich. If he signs, with the Royals or anyone else, well, let’s just say I won’t be buying any tickets or writing any articles about him.

I just can’t think about it. It stirs up too much inside me. And if that’s true for me, a 50-year old man who has done a lot of thinking and healing, well, can you imagine what that would be like for someone not nearly as far along in the healing process?

That’s the last I’ll ever say on it.