Ex-Red Sox pitcher arrested for sex with minor in Florida – NBC 6 South Florida

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Austin Maddox was arrested in Florida in connection with a sex affair involving minors, authorities announced Monday.

Maddox was one of 27 people arrested late last month as part of a multi-agency operation, said Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters. They are accused of soliciting sex over the Internet from people they believed to be children, officials said.

Maddox, 33, began communicating with an undercover agent on April 28 pretending to be an underage girl, an arrest report said. He expressed his intention to have sex with the girl even after she told him she was 14, officials said.

Maddox agreed to meet the girl at a prearranged location, where he was arrested by police officers, authorities said.

He is charged with four crimes, including traveling to a meeting after using a computer to solicit a child. He is in jail on a $300,000 bond. His attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Maddox played college ball for the University of Florida and was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2012. After several years in the minors, he made his major league debut with the team in 2017. He spent about three months on the Red Sox roster before returning to the minors to recover from shoulder injuries. He was released from the team in 2019.