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Report: Athletics' Maxwell expected to avoid jail time after arrest

Rick Yeatts / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell is expected to avoid serving jail time after being arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a food delivery person, a legal source told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Maxwell was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct on Oct. 28 following the alleged incident at his Arizona home. Though he has already entered a plea of not guilty to both charges, the source told Slusser his case is likely to end in a plea deal.

To that end, the Athletics are fully anticipating Maxwell will be with the team at the beginning of spring training in February.

"We're expecting Bruce to ready to go the first day of spring training and to be with us," general manager David Forst told Slusser on Tuesday at the winter meetings. "I'm not getting involved in the legal side of this, but no one has said anything to me that makes me believe he won't be ready to go."

A's manager Bob Melvin, who has been exchanging texts with Maxwell, said the soon-to-be 27-year-old is "trying to do the best he can to stay positive."

"It's an unfortunate incident," Melvin added, "and he made a mistake. Hopefully, he can get past that."

Maxwell's next scheduled court appearance is a pretrial conference Dec. 28, per Slusser. In the event that a plea bargain can't be reached, he'd likely stand trial at some point early next year.

Maxwell, who first gained notoriety late last season by becoming the first major-league player to kneel during the national anthem, is expected to be Oakland's starting catcher next year. He hit .237/.329/.333 with three homers and 22 RBIs in 76 big-league contest last year, and threw out 28 percent of would-be base-stealers.

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