Tony La Russa may not have had a problem with Minnesota Twins reliever Tyler Duffey throwing at one of his players, but Major League Baseball certainly did.
The league announced Thursday that Duffey has been suspended three games for throwing behind Chicago’s Yermin Mercedes on Tuesday. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has also received a one-game ban.
There’s nothing surprising about this. Duffey was ejected for his actions, which came one game after Mercedes hit a home run off position player Willians Astudillo on a 3-0 count in a blowout win by the White Sox. That also led to something of a rift in the Chicago clubhouse, with manager Tony La Russa criticizing Mercedes and even siding with the Twins in how they handled the situation.
Duffey has a 4.40 ERA in 14.1 innings this season. He’s issued 10 walks, but the league definitely wasn’t buying that this was down to run-of-the-mill wildness.
