One of baseball’s strangest incidents in recent years has resulted in a one-game suspension, at least so far.
Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro fell to third base after slipping a cell phone out of his pocket during a game last week. be.
He was also fined undisclosed.
“I want MLB to listen to me and understand my heart behind everything,” Castro, 23, told reporters through a Spanish interpreter before Tuesday’s home game against the Boston Red Sox. “This wasn’t intentional. This wasn’t meant to happen.”
The play in question occurred in the fourth inning of a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on the same day Castro was called up from Class AAA. Castro, an infielder in his second season in Pittsburgh, slipped headfirst into third, slipping his iPhone out of his pocket and onto the dirt in the Phoenix infield.
While the play elicited many laughs, it also raised the possibility that the phone was used for some nefarious reason.
“I don’t think any professional baseball player goes out with a cell phone,” he told reporters at the time. “It’s horrible that it happened to me. Obviously it was very unintentional.”
After high-profile incidents in which the Houston Astros carried out an elaborate sign-stealing scheme involving the use of a video replay room, and the Boston Red Sox carried out a sign-stealing system using the Apple Watch, MLB decided to ban technology at games. has been working to monitor the use of .
The Astros and Red Sox players involved in these incidents were not suspended for using technology because they were given immunity in exchange for cooperating with the investigation.
MLB has handed out various lengthy suspensions this season, including an 80-game suspension for San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. increase. A three-game ban for Tommy Pham of the Cincinnati Reds at the time for slapping an opponent. Yankees guard Josh Donaldson has been suspended for one game for making disrespectful comments to Chicago White Sox guard Tim Anderson.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton told reporters after the incident, “When you’re around the game, you see things you’ve never seen before. This was just a kid who made a mistake.” It’s just one of the things we do to move forward and tell him, ‘You can’t do that.'”
“We respect MLB’s decision,” Shelton told reporters when asked about Tuesday’s suspension, without further comment.