Major League Baseball moved quickly on the bench-clearing brawl between the Nationals and Red Sox, handing out suspensions to all four players involved in the incident.
Washington starter Cade Cavalli was hit with the heaviest penalty: seven games for initiating and taking part in the fracas. Rotation mate Miles Mikolas received a five-game suspension for his role in the scrum. On Boston’s side, first baseman Willson Contreras was suspended seven games for what MLB said he did during and after the confrontation, while backup infielder Nate Eaton drew a three-game ban.
Each player was also fined an undisclosed amount, and all four are expected to appeal. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported at 7:08 p.m. that the appeals will indeed be filed. Because both clubs are off tonight, the suspensions would otherwise start tomorrow.
Contreras’ punishment was increased because he violated a league rule about using social media during a game, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. After being ejected, he went on Instagram and replied, “come meet me at Fenway” to a fan who had insulted him while the game was still being played.
The fight itself grew out of the fourth inning on Tuesday, when Cavalli struck Contreras out looking and yelled “sit down, boy” as Contreras headed back to the dugout. Contreras then moved toward the mound, and both benches emptied.
During the chaos, Contreras threw his helmet. The tension had apparently started even earlier, in the first inning, when Cavalli took issue with Contreras brushing past him as they returned to their dugouts at the end of the frame.
Eaton and Mikolas were not in the game, but both were ejected for fighting once the benches cleared.
Cavalli was never tossed and stayed in to throw seven scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts, the best outing of his career. Red Sox interim skipper Chad Tracy criticized the umpires for not ejecting him, and MLB’s discipline made clear the league office believed punishment was warranted.
Contreras, who is Venezuelan, and Tracy both declined to say whether they thought Cavalli’s use of the word “boy” carried a racial meaning, according to ESPN. Cavalli addressed the matter in a statement yesterday, saying the comment was not meant that way and expressing regret over his wording.
“I’m extremely torn up about the way that things were perceived,” Cavalli said. “Obviously, there was no ill intention behind that.
My teammates know me, my family knows me, this organization knows me. I couldn’t sleep because of it.
It hurt my heart, knowing that if there’s a 13-year-old Black kid in D.C. that sees that - that looked up to me and thinks that he perceived it in a way that wasn’t intended the way that it came out, and then he’s not looking up to me anymore - that hurts my heart.”
In Other News...
Yankees Just Made A Bullpen Move Fans Will Absolutely Hate
A night that already felt like rock bottom only made the Yankees bullpen picture look worse. After an 11-inning loss to the Tigers completed a three-game sweep and extended the skid to seven straight, the club sent rookie right-hander Yovanny Cruz back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a move that landed hard with fans who had been watching the relief corps get stretched thin in recent losses.
The frustration was immediate because Cruz had just given the team a useful look in relief, and the timing came with the bullpen already short-handed while David Bednar was away on paternity leave. Instead of steadying a unit in need, the decision only fed the sense that the Yankees were making the kind of roster call that invites more questions than answers, and the reaction from around the fan base was predictably sharp. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Suddenly Have A Ben Rice Problem They Cant Ignore
Ben Rices path with the Yankees has already become one of the more delicate roster questions on the clubs radar. He has spent time both at first base and at designated hitter, but his share of the first-base work has shrunk as the Yankees have leaned on Paul Goldschmidt, a shift driven by injuries and performance needs as much as anything else. For a young player trying to establish himself, the mix of defensive reps and offensive opportunities matters, and right now the balance looks unsettled.
The concern is not just where Rice fits, but whether the Yankees are giving him enough runway to settle in before the season moves on. His defensive lapses have drawn notice, and his recent offense has only added to the pressure, making every start feel more important than the last. If the Yankees believe he can be part of their future, they may have to live with more of the growing pains now rather than keep shuffling him into a role that leaves too much unresolved. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Fans Wont Like Boones Latest Call During This Brutal Skid
The Yankees seven-game slide has put every late-game decision under a microscope, and Aaron Boones latest call only sharpened the scrutiny. With injuries and an offense that has struggled to find a rhythm, the manager leaned on Oswaldo Cabrera in a key spot rather than turning to a different option, a choice that fit Boones broader tendency to trust his players even when the results have been hard to ignore.
In this case, Boone framed the move as a matter of confidence in Cabreras ability to put the ball in play, not a numbers-driven calculation. That explanation is unlikely to calm a frustrated fan base while the losses keep piling up, especially with the club searching for any spark to stop the skid and get back to the kind of baseball that once made these decisions feel a lot less fraught. [Read more 🡒]