Major League Baseball is pinning the blame on Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jose Alvarado over the team’s recent bench-clearing incident against the New York Mets.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported Sunday that Alvarado will receive a three-game suspension from the league over Friday night’s incident with the Mets. Alvarado plans to appeal, and thus remains eligible to play for the time being.
Philadelphia #Phillies reliever Jose Alvarado receives three-game suspension and fine for inciting a benches-clearing incident with the #Mets and Dominic Smith. He is appealing.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) May 2, 2021
You can see the incident that led to the suspension by clicking here.
This appears to be another case where questions will be raised over whether MLB went after the right person. This was recently a controversy over Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos, who taunted Cardinals pitcher Jake Woodford, prompting an intervention from Yadier Molina and a bench-clearing incident. Only Castellanos was suspended, which raised the ire of at least one of his fellow players.
Alvarado’s actions weren’t any less overt than Castellanos’, and he seemed to invite Dominic Smith to come after him. That won’t work in his favor if he actually goes through with the appeal.
