MLB ace nicked for battery after police hear screams, see him ‘throwing woman he grabbed by the neck against wall and hitting her’

Baseball star Marcell Ozuna has been arrested on two counts of domestic battery this weekend after police allegedly saw him attacking and strangling a woman in an Atlanta suburb, according to local officials in Georgia.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Ozuna was already expected to miss six weeks of action through injury before he was arrested by police in Sandy Springs on one count of battery family violence and another of aggravated assault strangulation.

Arriving at the scene, Sandy Springs Police Department officers say they heard screaming coming from inside the Ozuna home.

They allegedly saw the outfielder grab the neck of his victim, believed to be wife Genesis, and then throw her up against a wall. 

Immediately taken into custody for the act, Ozuna is also accused of striking her with his arm, which is in a cast due to his injury.

The woman consequently had visible lesions of her own, but wasn't taken to hospital to be treated, according to the official police report.

Ozuna is currently languishing in Fulton County Jail while he awaits prosecution.

Major League Baseball (MLB) bosses are planning an investigation into the weekend's incident, according to ESPN.

Should it be determined that Ozuna, 30, violated their domestic violence policy, a significant suspension will likely be handed down.

In a similar case two years ago, Domingo German, of the New York Yankees, was made to sit out 81 games for falling foul of the rules, and the Philadelphia Phillies' Odubel Herrera missed 85 matches in the same 2019 season.

Releasing a statement on the matter, the Braves said: "We learned of Marcell Ozuna’s arrest earlier this evening and immediately informed the Commissioner’s Office.

"The Braves fully support Major League Baseball’s policy on domestic violence, which stresses to the fullest that our society cannot and will not tolerate domestic violence in any form.

"Until the investigation is completed, we will have no further comment and all inquiries into the matter should be referred to the Office of the Commissioner."

Ozuna's manager, Brian Snitker, revealed he only found out about the arrest in the aftermath of the Braves' crushing 13-2 defeat to the New York Mets on Saturday, but passed on the opportunity to offer some thoughts.

"The Braves have made a statement. I stand by that and that’s all I know," he said.

Ozuna is currently in the first year of a four-year contract worth $65 million, which he signed in preseason.

His injury was caused when he fractured two fingers after sliding into third base as the Braves beat the Boston Red Sox 3-1 on Tuesday. 

Before that, struggling Ozuna had shown markedly different form to the streak he delivered in 2020, when he hit 18 home runs and scored a further 56.

This is not the first time the Ozunas have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Last summer, Genesis was arrested for hitting Marcell in the face with a soap dish, according to multiple reports.