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Suspensions Announced for Blue Jays-Rangers Brawl

Sunday’s Blue Jays-Rangers game was, undeniably, a bit of a circus. There were hit batters, punches, tackles, and a takeout slide. I’m not going to get into it too deeply, as you can see it for yourself (below) and make your own decisions as to who was in the wrong here (The Rangers).

Of course, a game like this doesn’t exist in isolation. Once all of the emotion, posturing, and angry tweets are over and done with, there is punishment to be meted out. On Tuesday afternoon, news began to leak about suspensions for certain players/coaches involved in the fracas.

Rougned Odor: Eight Games

Odor was always obviously going to get the biggest suspension. When you start throwing punches on a ball field, the league pays attention. That being said, I’m sure many people are a little surprised at the length of the suspension. Only eight games!? Well, there’s precedent for this type of thing:

Michael Barrett got 10 games for that, and it was completely unprovoked (unless you believe that the presence of A.J. Pierzynski is enough provocation on its own).

Carlos Quentin actually broke Zack Greinke’s collarbone on this one, putting the star pitcher on the disabled list for two months. Quentin’s suspension: 8 games.

Shi Davidi recently wrote a very good piece arguing for large suspensions for the Rangers players to send a message that hitting players for celebrating is not okay. That certainly would have been interesting, and likely even effective as a deterrent. However, this is just the way baseball does things. The only real chance that Odor was going to have a longer suspension would have been if baseball classified him as a repeat offender.

Jesse Chavez: Three Games

Chavez being gone for three games is the least surprising aspect of all of this. This actually directly mirrors last’s year’s suspension for Aaron Sanchez after he hit Alcides Escobar in retaliation.

It’s basically clockwork. If you’re a starter and you get ejected for throwing at somebody, you get five games. If you’re a reliever, you get three. So Chavez will sit for a series.

The Blue Jays Fighters: No Suspensions

Kevin Pillar and Josh Donaldson did not receive bans for their actions (links go to Twitter news from Shi Davidi). Instead, both received small fines. Given their roles in the actual brawl (Pillar doing everything he could to get to Odor, Donaldson actually tackling Odor), baseball is essentially saying “we understand why you did this, so we’re going to ignore it.” This is a bit of a surprise, and also a bit generous.

Elvis Andrus: One Game

Of all the predictions out there of who would and would not be suspended, I don’t think Elvis Andrus showed up once. It didn’t really show up on the video feed, but Andrus has apparently received a one game ban for throwing a punch at Kevin Pillar. It’s strange that he got the boot and the Blue Jays guys didn’t, but he must have connected with a punch when Pillar and Donaldson did not.

Matt Bush: No Suspension

Matt Bush being involved in all of this is probably the most and least surprising aspect of everything. The man has a long history of legal troubles including numerous assaults and recently spent nearly three years in jail for almost killing someone while driving drunk. This is the unsurprising part of his involvement Sunday. However, he wasn’t even on the Rangers last year when Bautista “offended” them by hitting a ball to the moon, so him being the guy to hit Bautista still makes zero sense.

As the real instigator of the fracas (unless you think it was Brian Bannister, which wouldn’t come as a shock), this is where Shi Davidi’s suggestion should have come into play. Instead, we’re seeing no discipline whatsoever (unless he has received a small fine) for the lifelong troublemaker. Does anybody actually think this was an accident? Why he is getting the benefit of the doubt here?

Still, Bush is just two games into his big league career, and he’s already getting into trouble. I’m sure this won’t be the last time he’s facing off with the Commissioner’s office.

Jose Bautista: One Game

This is the most polarizing of all the decisions – non-Matt Bush Division. Was Bautista’s slide late and aggressive? Yep. Was it dirty though? Probably not. He didn’t go in spikes high, and he didn’t use his arms to take down Odor when he jumped. He was merely trying to send a message that throwing at him is not acceptable. Heck, last year nobody would have batted an eye at a slide like that. Some will say that Bautista should be suspended because he broke the new rules, but all that means is that it becomes an automatic double play, which is exactly what happened.

All that being said, he also clearly caused the fracas to escalate. He got up and moved aggressively towards Odor. He may not have wanted a fistfight, but he clearly wanted to get in Odor’s face.

That probably still doesn’t warrant a suspension, but it’s the compromise play and it’s where we ended up.

John Gibbons: Three Games

To the casual observer, John Gibbons did nothing wrong. He didn’t throw any punches or try to wrestle anybody to the ground like Donaldson and Pillar. Heck, he didn’t even make it to the pile. However, he did break a clear baseball rule by coming back out onto the field after having been ejected. That almost always carries a suspension. John Farrell recently avoided punishment when he came back out after being given the heave-ho, but Farrell returned to restrain an irate David Ortiz. Gibbons clearly had no intention of calming things down, and in fact seemed intent on getting in Bannister’s face. Gibbons was also suspended for a similar infraction last year (same game as Sanchez), hence the extra two games this year.

It’s important to note that it’s likely every suspension (for players, not coaches) will be appealed so that players don’t have to serve them at the same time. Some will be knocked down a game or two, but in most cases, the player will drop his appeal and serve the suspension at a time that makes sense for him and the team.

Also, there are almost certainly undisclosed fines attached to all of the punishments. The reason for the fines is that unlike PED suspensions or criminal violations, players are paid in full for suspensions due to actions on the field. So while these players will have to sit, it’s really more of a paid vacation.

This is just the crazy end to a crazy story.

Lead Photo: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

UPDATE:

Tim Leiper has also been suspended one game and fined for being in the dugout following his ejection earlier in the day over balks not being called.

UPDATE #2:

The suspensions are confirmed.

UPDATE #3 – Absolute Lunacy Department

This is completely, inexplicably insane.

So…the league knows Bush threw at Bautista on purpose, inciting a brawl, and gave him….a fine? What the heck? Somebody needs to do some explaining there. Why is the league okay with the Rangers taking retaliatory action on Bautista for flipping his bat six months ago? What a joke.

UPDATE 4:

There were additional fines announced for players/coaches who did not warrant suspensions:

UPDATE #5:

It seems Bautista’s comments about the umpires being unable to handle the situation properly pushed him over the edge into suspension. That makes a bit more sense.

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5 comments on “Suspensions Announced for Blue Jays-Rangers Brawl”

Joe

I think that depends on your interpretation of “fair”. Is it fair taking into perspective previous infractions? Sure. The punishments are right in line with precedent.

The problem with that is precedent doesn’t make much sense. 3 games for Gibby’s infraction is completely out of proportion with Odor committing assault on another player. And suspensions of this magnitude don’t appear to have much effect in deterring bad behaviour like throwing at people.

I would start with 5 games for both Bush and Chavez, and adjust from there. 2-3 for Bautista. 5 or 7 games for Andrus/Pillar/Donaldson. 20 games for Odor, let him appeal it down to 15.

If you want to really deter this, you need to punish the team enough that the organization and teammates have incentive to discourage the behaviour. Losing a player off the 25 man roster for a handful of games is a negligible difference to the team over a 162 game season. You need to punish them harder. Unless of course, you don’t really want to deter at all, and this is just lip service, then keep following the playbook, I guess.

Joshua Howsam

You’re essentially arguing the same way as Davidi. I think it’s a fair point for sure (and worthy of a longer piece). I was trying to look at things in the context of how baseball usually does things, though. As such, the only real surprises to me were Donaldson, Pillar, and Bush.

Joe

The fines make no damn sense at all. Might be time to start a @drunkjoetorre account.

Arjonn

Aside from never doing more than barely tapping offenders’ wrists, the context of how baseball usually does things has been inconsistent enough to make it difficult if not impossible to achieve consistency in situations like this one that involve numerous individuals. The system, such as it is, needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, and the sooner the better although I suspect the union would be very reluctant to allow suspensions, fines or other actions that are significant enough to carry real deterrent or punishment value.

Joshua Howsam

Agree completely. It needs to be fixed. Sadly, as you suggest, it almost certainly won’t be.

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