Washington Nationals fire employee for throwing coffee at woman

The Washington Nationals have fired an employee who allegedly threw two cups of hot coffee in the face of a female employee of convenience store in the Dominican Republic, the team told ESPN on Saturday.

In a Twitter video posted Friday night, Jazhiel Morel, who was the administrator of the Academy for Nationals in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, was shown filling coffee cups before exchanging words with the cashier and then pouring the coffee on them.

Morel has agreed to turn himself in to police Monday afternoon, said his lawyer, Rafael Ariza, Dominican journalist Edith Febles.

“The Washington Nationals learned of this horrific incident earlier today and terminated the employee immediately,” Mike Rizzo, the Nationals’ president of baseball operations and general manager, said in a statement to ESPN on Saturday. “We tolerate this kind of behavior in our organization.”

The Dominican Academy of the Nationals has been a source of significant talent for the defending World Series champions. Among those who have come from the Nationals’ Dominican pipeline: star outfielder Juan Soto, center fielder Victor Robles, reliever Wander Suero, striker Wilmer Difo and rookie striker Luis Garcia.

Morel joined the Nationals in 2017 as a video intern at the academy, according to his LinkedIn page. He spent the next two years as a board assistant before moving to a manager in November, helping carry out day-to-day operations. He previously played at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.

ESPN’s Enrique Rojas contributed to this report.