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Former Major League Baseball pitcher Austin Maddox was arrested in relation to an underage sex sting in Florida, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced during a news conference on Monday (May 20).
Maddox, 33, who spent one MLB season with the Boston Red Sox in 2017, was charged with four felony counts, including traveling to meet after using a computer to solicit a child, and is being held in jail on a $300,000 bond, according to an arrest report obtained by WBZ News. The former pitcher was among 27 people arrested for allegedly soliciting sex over the internet from people who they believed to be children as part of the multi-agency "child predator operation" late last month.
"Austin Maddox, a former Red Sox MLB player, traveled with the intent of engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old child," Waters announced during the news conference.
Maddox allegedly started communicating with an undercover agent posing as an underage girl on April 28, according to the arrest report. The former pitcher expressed his intention to have sex with the girl despite being told that she was 14 during their conversations.
Maddox agreed to meet the girl at a designated location, at which point he was arrested by law enforcement officers. The 33-year-old was seen being tackled by an officer during his arrest in a video shared by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
"Maddox resisted arrest, until our K-9 got involved," the video states.
Maddox was selected by the Red Sox in the third-round of the 2012 MLB Draft and recorded a 0.52 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 13 appearances and 17.1 innings pitched as a reliever in 2017, having previously spent six years in the franchise's minor league system. The Jacksonville native suffered shoulder inflammation during spring training the following year before multiple injuries led to his retirement from professional baseball in 2020.