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Bautista, Donaldson, Pillar, Chavez, Gibbons could all be suspended for Toronto, while the Rangers’ Odor will likely face stiffest penalty when MLB judgment expected to come down.
Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer Joe Torre said Monday he hopes to mete out punishment for Sunday’s brawl between the Blue Jays and Rangers as early as Tuesday.
Here’s a speculative look at what length of suspension each of the players involved could be facing.
Rougned Odor – 8 to 10 games
The stiffest penalty is likely due to the Rangers’ second baseman, who landed the biggest blow of the fracas when he connected on an overhand right to Jose Bautista’s jaw. In the last decade, players seen as a brawl’s instigator have typically received seven to 10-game suspensions.
Jose Bautista – 3 to 5 games
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Depending on your perspective, it was actually Bautista who instigated the brawl by delivering an intentionally hard slide to Odor and then aggressively walking towards him. But he never did get any punches in. Chances are he’ll get two games for the slide and another one or two for getting in Odor’s face.
Josh Donaldson/Kevin Pillar – 0 to 2 games
Donaldson was ejected from Sunday’s game, but Pillar was not. Both players were the most aggressive in coming to Bautista’s defence, tearing out of the Jays’ dugout and into the mix in an attempt to get at Odor. It’s tough to tell, even watching video replays of the incident, whether either of them landed any punches. But they definitely weren’t peacemakers and could face a suspension of a game or two as a result.
Matt Bush – 3 games
It was Bush, the Rangers’ rookie reliever, who in fact set off the entire episode by drilling Bautista with his first pitch of the eighth inning. He wasn’t ejected for that offence, but chances are MLB officials will deem it intentional and he’ll face the standard-issue three-game suspension for purposeful plunkings.
Jesse Chavez – 3 games
The Jays’ right-handed reliever will likely face the same punishment for retaliating with his own purpose pitch to Rangers’ behemoth Prince Fielder immediately following the brawl.
John Gibbons – 2 games
The Jays’ manager was ejected in the third inning of Sunday’s game, but came back onto the field during the brawl, something he did last August as well when the Jays and Royals had a benches-clearing incident. He received a one-game suspension then, so chances are it will be double this time as a second offence.
With files from The Associated Press
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