Opinion: Major League Baseball needs to fix its suspension policy.
In the MLB, a player can still play while appealing their suspension. We saw this occur in the ALCS between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. Rangers’ slugger Adolis Garcia came to the plate with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning and a runner on first. Astros reliever Bryan Abreu hit Garcia in the bicep on the first pitch of the at-bat, and Garcia was irate. He immediately dropped his bat and started chirping the Astros catcher Martin Maldonaldo. Garcia, Abreu, and Astros manager Dusty Baker were ejected from the game as a result.
It was announced yesterday that Abreu was suspended for two games by league officials. He appealed that suspension and was allowed to pitch in game six last night. Major League Baseball is the only sport that allows the players to play while appealing a suspension, and it’s ridiculous. It’s easy to look back and say the pitch by Abreu wasn’t intentional because the Astros were down 2 with one chance remaining. This simply isn’t true.
The Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros have had bad blood all season. They’re both in the AL West and were battling one another for the division crown most of the regular season. Benches cleared in a meeting back in July after Adolis Garcia hit a grand slam and Rangers second basemen Marcus Semien got into it with (guess who) Martin Maldonaldo. Both teams need to get past the other to advance to the world series, further elevating the rivalry. It’s worth mentioning that Martin Maldonaldo took exception for how long it took Garcia to run around the bases after hitting a lead-taking home run earlier in game 5.
Earlier today, Major League Baseball announced that Abreu’s suspension was upheld, and he’ll miss two games. It was then announced that he’ll miss the first two games of the 2024 season. So instead of forcing him to miss game 7 of the ALCS and game 1 of the world series (the two most important games thus far), the MLB gave a small slap on the wrist to the Astros reliever. This is nonsense. No one cares about the first two games of a 162-game season; people care much more about the most crucial games a team has yet to play. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and it could go on for much longer until it’s changed. Baseball continues its reputation of refusing to get out of its own way.
