BOSTON - Cade Cavalli spent Wednesday morning owning what came out of his mouth the night before, and the Washington Nationals right-hander made clear he understands why it landed so badly.
After Tuesday night’s win over the Boston Red Sox, Cavalli said he felt terrible about yelling at Willson Contreras to “sit down, boy” after a strikeout, a moment that sparked a scuffle and ended with four ejections. On Wednesday, Cavalli said he did not know the phrase carried historically racist connotations, and he promised he would never say it again.
“I’m extremely torn up about the way that things were perceived,” Cavalli said. “Obviously, there was no ill intention behind that.
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.
“It’s really tough. I’ve learned a lot. The intention was perceived different than what my heart is and who I am as a person, my character.”
The Nationals addressed the matter internally Wednesday morning. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni and manager Blake Butera both spoke with Cavalli and said the team would not discipline him, explaining they did not believe his intent was to “demean someone in some racial way.”
Toboni also said the broader reaction mattered just as much as what Cavalli says he meant.
“It doesn’t matter if your intent is OK,” Toboni said. “Because the bottom line is, there are folks around Washington, D.C., and around the country that might receive it differently than you receive it.”
Cavalli said he has not reached out to Contreras, though he hopes his message gets to him. Butera also had not spoken to Contreras as of Wednesday morning. Toboni and Butera had not yet addressed the rest of the team when Toboni spoke with reporters, though that could still happen.
Cavalli said he has now been made aware of the history behind the phrase and understands why it cannot be brushed off.
“There’s a history behind that word, and that’s just something that as a competitor, like in football or basketball, playing Wiffle ball with my brother, you don’t understand it,” Cavalli said. “And then it gets perceived in a way that was not my intention, and then you learn from that. It’ll never happen again.”
The incident had already been a flashpoint Tuesday night. In the postgame clubhouse, Cavalli did not initially include the word “boy” when describing what he said. Chad Tracy, Boston’s interim manager, said it was obvious Cavalli had shouted it “at the top of (his) lungs.”
Tracy revisited the moment before Wednesday’s game and said he would leave any punishment to Major League Baseball.
“I’m gonna let them decide that,” Tracy said. “I’ll stick with what I said last night.
It was just when it happened, it was like ‘Whoa,’ when you heard that. So I’m hopeful that they will.
There’s plenty more camera angles and things here than there is in Triple A to assess and watch every angle of what happened.”
Contreras did not speak to reporters before Wednesday’s game and did not expand on the incident after Tuesday night’s game.
“Whatever happened there happened,” Contreras said after Tuesday’s game. “I will not be making any comments about (what Cavalli said). I feel like it’s going to go against me.”
Tracy later added that he did not believe Contreras simply wandered out for no reason.
“I don’t think it was that Willson just decided to walk out there for no reason to have a conversation,” Tracy said. “So that was my only take on it and I’ll stick by it.”
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