MLB’s decision to suspend Cincinnati Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos for his confrontation with the St. Louis Cardinals has made some people genuinely angry, including the player’s agent.
Scott Boras, who represents Castellanos, urged the MLBPA to look closely at the two-game suspension, citing the fact that Castellanos was not the one who initiated the physical contact that led to the benches-clearing incident.
“When there is a contact play at the plate and no physical contact thereafter — only competitive speech — and a suspension is issued, such a subjective standard does not provide players with proper notice of violative conduct,” Boras said, via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I can cite 20 incidents from the 2020 season where competitive speech was exchanged between players, without physical contact, and no suspension was issued.
“At this point, where non-physical contact occurred, I do not know if a player can determine what type of conduct amounts to a suspension.”
You can see the incident that got Castellanos suspended by clicking here.
Boras is obviously sticking up for his client through this tactic, but he has a point. Castellanos yelled in the face of Cardinals pitcher Jake Woodford, but that’s highly unlikely to get any player suspended in itself. When Yadier Molina grabbed Castellanos to stand up for his pitcher, that was when the benches cleared.
Castellanos has stated that he plans to appeal the two-game suspension.
