Former Detroit Tigers minor league outfielder Danry Vasquez was released by the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League after video surfaced of him beating his fiancée.
The video, from 2016, has gone viral, eliciting visceral reactions across social media.
Justin Verlander, the former Tigers ace who won the World Series last season with the Houston Astros, reacted to the news and video this way on Twitter:
"(Middle finger) you man. I hope the rest of your life without baseball is horrible," Verlander wrote. "You deserve all that is coming your way!"
Vasquez began his pro career in 2011 with the Tigers' minor-league system in Lakeland and played for West Michigan and Connecticut in the Tigers' organization.
Verlander's brother, Ben, played with Vasquez when he started his career in 2013. His reaction to the video struck a similar tone to his older brother's.
"Played with this guy my first spring training. Absolutely infuriates me watching this video. Literally sick to my stomach," Ben Verlander wrote on Twitter.
Vasquez, whom the Tigers signed as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela, was sent to Houston as a part of the Jose Veras trade in 2013.
Vasquez, 24, was arrested in Aug. 4, 2016, after surveillance video was discovered of him striking his then girlfriend three times in a stairwell at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he played for the Astros' Double-A team.
That season was his last affiliated with any major league team.
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