So I’ll preface this by admitting upfront that its a Hot Take- one of those quintessential sports talking head opinions bereft of nuance and perspective – but I’m offering it because I think its right: Yordano Ventura needs to be suspended by Major League Baseball for at least 15 games.
If you missed last night’s fracas, you can watch the whole thing here:
[youtube id=”8_mOpzltQiA” width=”620″ height=”360″]
Obviously, Jeff Samardzjia should be suspended. So should Lorenzo Cain and Edison Volquez. The all engaged in physical violence on the field and in baseball, that’s unacceptable. If it were up to me, I’d give Shark and Volquez 10 games (2 starts essentially) and Cain 5 games. I’d also fine Chris Sale for his role in the fight but would not suspend him, I understand why he was heated and I didn’t see any evidence of him hitting another player.
The most severe punishment, though, should go to Ventura, even though he was not involved in most of the physical altercation. Last night was the second time in 4 starts that Ventura has been ejected and in three of his 4, benches have cleared. He’s showing a pattern of playing the game a certain way, a way that exposes players on both teams to unnecessary harm, and that’s not alright. Baseball needs to send him a message to check himself and not let this new behavior continue.
As for the Royals, they should be totally on board with the MLB’s decision. They’ve now had 9 players ejected and it’s still April! They’ve had three times as many guys tossed as the next closest team! I get the appeal of being the bad boys of the league but you’re not going to win when your starters are constantly hitting the showers early.
Moreover, its embarrassing. Ventura is coming off as a hot head and it reflects badly on the whole organization. Last night, jawing at Adam Eaton for hitting a grounder looked stupid. He’s gone too far and seems to be looking for a fight every night. It’s going to alienate fans like parents and children and its going to charge other teams up, in addition to possibly causing a long term injury to someone. Zack Greinke missed a couple of months a couple of years ago when he broke his collarbone in a fight. Ventura isn’t some situation lefty with a temper, he’s a starter with the highest average fastball velocity in the league, he can do a lot of damage with a baseball.
The Royals just invested long term in Ventura and they expect to compete this year. By compiling with a MLB suspension of at least 3 starts tehy’d be sending a strong and necessary message to Yordano and the team to right the ship right now.
-Max Frankel
