Major League Baseball has imposed a four-game suspension on Pirates reliever Dennis Santana for “aggressive conduct toward a fan” during the second game of yesterday’s doubleheader in Detroit. Santana, who was also fined an undisclosed amount, elected to appeal. He remains on the roster pending the result of that process.
Santana was in the bullpen last night when he got into a spat with a heckler in the first row. He jumped and took a swipe at the fan, though he didn’t appear to make contact (social media video). The fan was removed by Comerica Park security. Santana was not ejected and was called upon in the ninth inning. He recorded one out before the game went into a rain delay that led the Pirates to remove him rather than risk warming him back up.
After the game, Santana told the Pittsburgh beat via an interpreter that the fan had “crossed a line.” He declined to provide any more specifics (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Santana conceded that did not “justify (his) actions” and said he’d already expressed regret to manager Don Kelly. “You guys know me and I’m a calm demeanor type of person,” he told reporters. “I’ve never had any issues with any of the teams that I’ve played for and I guess the guy crossed the line a few times. I would not like to go into it.”
A waiver claim from the Yankees last June, Santana has been quietly excellent over a full calendar year since landing in Pittsburgh. He owns a 1.72 ERA with five saves and nine holds through 32 appearances this season. Santana has a year and a half of remaining arbitration control and should be a solid trade chip as the Pirates approach deadline season as clear sellers.
Detroit, Philly have very vocal fans for sure!
Philly has been a toilet for over a century for mlb.
Gen z or 1 or 17 wont understand.
Cespool of garbage
Calling Philly a cesspool of garbage when your name indicates one of the filthiest cities in the world is laughable at best
Philly fans are a cesspool of garbage, meanwhile Philly is known Xylazine.
What’s gen 1 and gen 17? Also, cesspool* of garbage is kind of redundant, like saying a septic tank full of excrement.
Don’t indulge him. He’s pretty stupid.
Not gonna lie; at first I read “septic tank full of excitement” haha
In fairness a septic tank could be empty
Sad life for you I guess.
So what about the fans?
How do we know that Santana was not justified in what he did?
so slapping a fan is justified?
It could very well be.
Ive heard consistently that the fan was telling him Roberto Clemente was burning in h*ll and other awful things about him.
To justify swinging at a fan based on words, the fan would practically have to threaten his kids and say their school address.
That said, what the fan said should impact the punishment. The suspension was not that long which tells me that everyone believe that the fan was a real jerk.
We don’t know because Santana refused to elaborate. That tells me it wasn’t a big deal or he doesn’t want more focus on the issue because he probably said/did something worse.
If it was truly bad, he would tell the press because it would show the level of horrible things players hear directed at them.
why would he do that and encourage copycats
If you bring light to unacceptable fan behavior then they can work to nip it in the bud early. The player can report it to staff and have them tossed. See something say something. Wasn’t that what we learned since 9/11?
Chances are both parties are at fault and he doesn’t want his side coming out.
He can bring unacceptable fan behavior to light to the league and the team without talking about it to the press.
MLB is getting soft.
Pirates would be stupid to trade him, isn’t paid much and is not becoming a free agent. Bednar’s larger cost makes him the prime trade candidate.
sell high for a team like Pittsburgh to maximize return
too bad Cruz couldn’t get suspended
5 strikeouts in his last 7 plate appearances and committed a costly error that allowed Texas to score a run
Regarding Santana, I saw the video. Apparently he allowed a fan’s mouth to test his patience but is it worth 4 games?
Should be two games maximum.
Heard a Pirate got into an “altercation” with a fan. Saw the video.
He missed the guy by 5 feet. It was feeble.
Found the Ron Artest brawl on Youtube. THAT was an “altercation”.
Yes the pirates pitcher covered in tattoos is the gentlest of souls. Most of us would be fired doing the same thing at our jobs…
You don’t know anything at all about Dennis Santana’s soul.
The typical workplace doesn’t have a history of drunk crazies jumping walls to attack the workers.
It’s 2025 tattoos don’t mean anything lol
Boy..way to profile someone….must be bad man has tattoos.
Sonny Corleone threw a better punch.
If every Pirate player were hitting exactly like Oneil Cruz – even with the strikeouts – the Pirates would have the fourth highest OPS in MLB and would be very close to being in first place in their division.
To moan about his strikeouts shows a serious misunderstanding of run creation.
Richard- He doesn’t hustle.
That error today was his normal casual self.
I have never seen someone do that who did not automatically turn around and chase the ball down.
He looked like a casual observing fan on a baseball field.
Any good manager would have pulled him on the spot.
And he does seem to guess on pitches which is fine early in the count.
But not with two strikes.
These are all statements that even a casual baseball fan would know.
Sadly, 0 for 7 past two games. No denying the potential, but the individual stats and the team offensive performance don’t really support the support for him.
I guess Jim Rice would be suspended for a month for getting his hat back. Yeesh.
Maybe the ignorant and obnoxious fans who heckle athletes enough to evoke responses like this should be banned from attending games for some period of time in addition to the punishments the athletes get (deserving or not). The ugly American story we hear about too often: living in America with all of the benefits leads some idiots to forget real world problems that so many others face on a daily basis. This fan seemed to be so entitled to behave this way with no threat of consequence: what does that say about our woke American society?
There USED TO BE a thing called, “provocation”.
A threat or insult could be answered with a physical reaction. You PROVOKED the other person. You couldn’t do or say what ever you wanted = you were required by law to repect.the other persons’ rights to not be treated unpleasantly.
There were NO BUMPERSTICKERS OR T-SHIRTS with swear words or $uck….someone could get out of their car and kick your butt.
Quite frankly, I WISH WE GO BACK TO THOSE DAYS.
MY MOTHER, NOR ANYBODY ELSE DOES NOT NEEDS TO READ THAT STUFF.