Jonathan Schoop, the second baseman who spent parts of six seasons in Baltimore and made the American League All-Star team in 2017, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison in his native Curaçao on illegal weapons charges. The island's Court of First Instance issued the ruling Friday, September 11, suspending six of those months and leaving two years for Schoop to serve, according to the Curaçao Chronicle.
The court convicted him of possessing a heavy firearm and ammunition. Prosecutors had pushed for considerably more — four years, with eight months suspended — so the sentence handed down lands well short of what the state asked for.
The January Raid
The case traces back to the early hours of the 2026 calendar year, well before Schoop was due to report anywhere. He was arrested on January 29, and searches carried out at his residence and at other locations connected to the investigation produced firearms, ammunition, spent cartridge casings and knives.
Schoop was not the only person swept up. Reporting at the time indicated he was one of roughly nine people detained as part of a broader probe, and that a judge extended his detention while investigators worked. He spent about four weeks in custody before being released on February 28 to await the outcome of his case.
Curaçaoan authorities said very little publicly during those weeks, and the specifics of what tied Schoop to the wider investigation were never spelled out in detail. Neither Schoop nor his attorney issued a public statement following Friday's ruling, and no appeal has been announced.
The World Baseball Classic Absence
For anyone who wondered in March why one of Curaçao's most recognizable exports was missing from the Kingdom of the Netherlands roster at the World Baseball Classic, this is the answer. Schoop had been a candidate for the team — he has represented the Netherlands internationally alongside his older brother, Sharlon, a longtime professional infielder in his own right — but his detention removed him from consideration entirely.
Curaçao's pipeline to the major leagues is remarkable for an island of roughly 150,000 people, having produced Andruw Jones, Andrelton Simmons, Kenley Jansen, Ozzie Albies and Didi Gregorius, among others. Schoop belongs on that list, which is part of why the case has carried the weight it has locally.
What He Was in Baltimore
Schoop signed with the Orioles as a teenager out of Willemstad and reached Camden Yards on September 25, 2013, at 21 years old. His debut is still one of the better ones in recent franchise memory: a single in his first big-league at-bat, then a 430-foot home run.
He became a fixture at second base during Baltimore's last genuinely good stretch. In 2014 he played 137 games and hit 16 home runs for a club that won the AL East for the first time since 1997. Three years later came the season that defined him — a .293 average, 32 home runs and 105 RBI in 2017, an All-Star selection, and a 12th-place finish in AL MVP voting.
The Orioles traded him to Milwaukee on July 31, 2018, at the front end of the teardown that reshaped the roster, sending him to the Brewers for Jonathan Villar and minor leaguers Luis Ortiz and Jean Carmona. He never quite recaptured the 2017 form, though he remained a useful regular for the Twins in 2019 and the Tigers from 2020 through 2023.
Across 10 major league seasons he collected 1,095 hits, 174 home runs and 544 RBI while batting .254. His last big-league game came in 2023.
Where It Leaves Him
Schoop had kept playing after his MLB career wound down, joining Algodoneros de Unión Laguna in the Mexican League in 2024 and signing with Dorados de Chihuahua ahead of the 2026 Liga Mexicana de Béisbol season. That plan, like the World Baseball Classic, has been overtaken by the case.
At 34 — he turns 35 on October 16 — a two-year prison term almost certainly forecloses whatever was left of his playing career. For Orioles fans, the news lands as a genuinely sad footnote to a player who was, for one summer at least, among the most productive second basemen in baseball.