Top Guardians prospect shoves umpire, incites bench-clearing brawl

Columbus Clippers outfielder George Valera won’t be forgetting Thursday night’s game against the Nashville Sounds anytime soon.

Valera, the top position player prospect in the Cleveland Guardians’ farm system, was involved in a brawl during the third inning of the Triple-A contest. The root cause of the entire ordeal appeared to stem from the 22-year-old taking issue with Sounds catcher Alex Jackson.

As Valera was setting up for his at-bat, he suddenly turned to confront Jackson, who then stood up to bark back at Valera. The home plate umpire tried to defuse the situation by shepherding the Clippers center fielder away from the batter’s box.

However, things got heated enough for Valera to shove the umpire away in order to get face-to-face with Jackson. The two exchanged blows as the benches cleared around them.

What lead to the Benches clearing pic.twitter.com/DRkWSQ8vch

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Both Valera and Jackson were ejected once the fracas died down.

Once play resumed, it was Valera’s Clippers that managed to find their footing first. With two outs in the top of the third, the next batter walked to load the bases. A Jhonkensky Noel single blew the game wide open after a fielding error in the outfield allowed all three baserunners to score. The Clippers beat the Sounds by a score of 6-2.

Valera has had a frustrating 2023 campaign in Columbus thus far, slashing a meager .187/.319/.227 through 21 games with the Clippers this season. The outlandishly low slugging percentage isn’t a typo. Valera has tallied just three extra-base hits and zero home runs.