The Brawl Everyone Is Talking About

Major League Baseball handed outs its suspensions and fines on Tuesday to members of the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays for their brawl on Sunday. You’d like to say MLB wielded its terrible, swift sword but that would only be half true. The discipline was swift, but not terrible. And, as always, it is being appealed.

Texas second baseman Rougned Odor, who landed an overhand right to the jaw of Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista, got an eight-game suspension and a fine of $5,000. As Odor earns nearly $523,000 from the Rangers, the fine is almost insignificant. And Odor will appeal his ban, temporarily staying it.

“I knew I was going to be suspended,” Odor said Tuesday evening. “I have to follow the rules, and I’m just waiting for the appeal. I want to be with my team all year. I don’t want to be out eight games.”

Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Chavez was suspended three games for hitting Prince Fielder with a pitch. Manager John Gibbons, who returned to the field for the fight even though he’d been ejected five innings earlier, was penalized three games for inciting additional fighting.

Bautista, who slid a little too enthusiastically into Odor, was suspended for one game for that and his postgame comments.

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus was suspended for one game for aggressive actions and Blue Jays first base coach Tim Leiper will miss a game for returning to the dugout following his ejection.

If baseball wants to be mixed martial arts, then this is all appropriate. Because it seems too lenient. If it is going to allow bad blood from the playoffs a year ago to degenerate into this sort of thing, then it must be tougher. Baseball has its unwritten codes about hitting batsmen and getting revenge and an existing culture isn’t easy to change. Make the perpetrators pay a higher price that hurts their team and maybe change gets a little easier.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman