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| Manny Machado gets penalty for actions vs. A's. Photo Credit: US Presswire |
Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has recently been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons with the confrontation he had with a couple of the Oakland A’s players during their weekend series. He now has been handed a five game suspension by Major League Baseball. It is said that Machado is going to appeal this suspension.
By: Michael Hanley
As the saying goes, with actions come consequences and Machado unfortunately had to find that out first hand. Hopefully this will be a learning lesson for him moving forward though not only this season but for years to come.
This whole incident actually started on Friday night, the first game of the three game series, when Machado was tagged out by A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson.It sound slike a routine, everyday play made in baseball but Machado thought different on this particular occasion.
He was thinking that Donaldson tagged him more roughly than a usual tag. After the tag, Machado’s anger was ignited and he slammed down his helmet in discuss right by Donaldson. Donaldson did not take kindly to Machado’s action and this sparked a benches clearing situation for both teams.
Such a simple play in baseball to get all blown out of proportion seems a little much, its not like Machado is a lightweight, this guy can usually take contact and be just fine physically. This of course would not be the last of the dust up between Machado and the A’s.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, third game of the series, Oakland is thumping the Orioles 11-1 at the time and Machado is up at bat. In a blowout game of this proportion, usually batters will just take some hacks and get back in the dugout as quick as possible, try to speed up the pace of the game.
Machado though, took exception to a pitch that A’s relief pitcher Fernando Abad. Abad threw an inside pitch that the Orioles third baseman took exception to and in a moment of clouded judgement, he threw his bat into the field of play. This ignited another benches clearing moment for both teams with Abad and Machado being ejected. Abad only received a fine from this altercation.
The Orioles organization has taken a proactive stance in all of this by having a team meeting with the 21 year old to discuss his choices and actions during these incidents. Its important that Baltimore addressed this right away and did not just treat Machado to a slap on the wrist. Now he is still a young player who will grow and prosper but he needs to realize that he can’t put the team and organization in a bad light because of some bad decisions he makes on the field. And Machado later did apologize on camera for the whole incident over the weekend and took responsibility which is a major step in the right direction.
The Oriole third baseman will continue to play games until his appeal is either heard or dropped by MLB. The on the field struggles have continued unfortunately for him. He is batting just .222 with 4 home runs and 11 RBIs. Coming off such a brilliant first full year in the major leagues, expectations were raised for him coming into this season despite the injury recovery.Orioles front office is hoping he can get on a roll and start to turn around his season along with the team’s overall season.
There have been talks of possibly demoting him to Triple A but GM Jim Duquette is hoping Machado can fix his problems at the major league level and remain with the team.
As the saying goes, with actions come consequences and Machado unfortunately had to find that out first hand. Hopefully this will be a learning lesson for him moving forward though not only this season but for years to come.
