Major league baseball announced that Mariners outfielder Víctor Robles has received a 10-game suspension and an undisclosed fine from the league. The suspension will begin as soon as Robles is reinstated from the injured list, though Robles has filed an appeal and the suspension is being held in abeyance until the appeals process is complete. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reported these details prior to the official announcement. Divish notes that the M’s would have to play a man short during the suspension.
Robles has been on the injured list for most of the year. Back in early April, he made a sensational catch in San Francisco but crashed into the sideline netting and dislocated his left shoulder, causing a small fracture in the humeral head of said shoulder.
A week ago, he was finally able to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma. During that week, he was hit by pitches multiple times, as shown in this video breakdown from Jomboy Media. Though he was hit five times, only three of them were technically counted as hit-by-pitches, with the other two counting as swings. Regardless, the final incident saw Robles hit by Joey Estes of the Las Vegas Aviators. Of the five times Robles was hit, three of them were out of the hand of Estes, though the final two were counted as swinging strikes.
Regardless of how it was scored, Robles was clearly upset and threw his bat towards the pitcher’s mound. It doesn’t appear as though it hit Estes or anyone else, but major league baseball is understandably taking a firm stance against a player using his bat in this dangerous manner and sending Robles a message.
President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto spoke to members of the media, including Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, noting that the club tentatively planned to reinstate Robles from the IL next week but those plans may change with the suspension. Divish suggests that perhaps the best plan is to reinstate Robles on September 1st, so that the M’s can at least play with a 27-man roster, though that would push his reinstatement into the middle of September. Reinstating him earlier would mean playing with a 25-man roster for a while, though that would also mean Robles would be able to be reinstated for more games.
It’s also unclear how long the appeals process will take. Sometimes, players appealing a suspension will hang in limbo until their team goes to New York, where the MLB head offices are located. The M’s don’t play in New York again this year, so it’s not clear when the appeal would be scheduled for. Robles being in the minors could also complicate factors. The M’s would surely love for the appeal to drag out into the winter and for Robles to serve his suspension next year, since they are currently in a playoff race, though MLB presumably wouldn’t let it play out like that.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images
5 HBP over one series BTW. Can’t be throwing bats, but that’s just not right.
Not to be that guy, but I think it’s 3 actual HBP over the 5 game series.
Not that it justifies what he did, but he was hit twice in G1, once in G2 and then not in the others. Sounds like this pitch was a close call, so I get the frustration, but still.
@Joemo
5 in the series. A few of them were him swinging and getting hit at the same time so no HBP recorded.
One was ruled a swing and another a foul, if I’m not mistaken. Watch the Jomboy clip breaking it down. It’s pretty clear he was hit 5 times.
But still?
Estes deserves a suspension too if only for the safety of hitters.
Baseballs thrown at 95 mph can do a lot more damage than a bat thrown at 40 mph.
Robles should have thrown some fists.
If he chose to do that instead, he probably would have only gotten 5 games.
Ten games way too many, you get less for charging the mound.
Three games seems fair but Robles is right to be upset.
The pitcher should receive double whatever Robles gets.
@LordD99
For what? Following the scouting report that says he is terrible at hitting the high and inside pitch? Yes, I’ll keep throwing it there until he shows he can hit it.
Are you in support of returning to the original rules of baseball where the batter told the pitcher where to throw the ball?
Scouting report says all hitters are bad at hitting pitches thrown at their heads.
@SecondDoug
Good. Pitchers should be throwing more in there.
True but thankfully they weren’t at his head
Old-And be ready for bats thrown at them then.
@Mendoza Line 215
It used to be part of the game to brush batters off the plate. Since MLB has become soft, we’ve made it almost impossible to pitch inside because of the concern of getting suspended for trying to throw inside when the batter is crowding the plate. Maybe the umpire should get the batters off the plate or start calling multiple strikes on the batters until they start standing inside their box and not hanging over the box. If you can’t stand properly in the box, don’t expect not to get hit or brushed back.
Okay Grandpa, stop yelling at the internet and get some sleep.
You’ll feel much better 🙂
@Mattimeo09
Good night, Matty!
He evidently does crowd the plate.
Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale would do that.
But throwing at someone’s head is a bozo no no and has always been such.
And if this guy is throwing at his injured elbow?
He should be the one getting the ten game suspension.
Beaning players has actually killed someone and ruined many careers.
Ask Tony Conigliaro’s family about that.
And if the pitcher cannot pitch on the inside of the plate he should not be pitching.
Any idea why they were so hell bent on plunking him to begin with?
There’s a Baseball America article from 2017 that noted that even then, Robles kept getting hit all the time in the minors, and his manager was saying no one was throwing at him. It’s such a long term trend that the problem has to be on Robles, not the pitchers. Maybe he’s crowding the plate?
@yeasties Yes you are correct. Robles has been plunked 188 times at all levels as a pro.
Bo Bichette, in contrast, has only experienced a HBP 27 times between the minors and majors.
Similar number of games between the two as professionals.
It was mostly just the one pitcher. Estes hit him 3 times. Also hit him last season when he was with the A’s. Not that it was excusable, but I think it should be lowered to 5 games and Estes should get the same.
It should definitely be reduced to 5, but let’s see. He should still be back just as rosters ex[and, regardless.
My math shows he swings at 40% of the pitches that hit him. What type of damage can he do on a pitch hitting him? Pitching him inside sounds like a great idea.
Surely this helps the Mariners in the division race
should be banned for life. Is this what the Mariners’ coaches teach?
He got hit 5 times. I want to know why his pitchers weren’t giving some payback to the other team. He shouldn’t have thrown his bat but I kinda understand.
They should throw the book at him?
I can’t help but laugh over the irony of your username given what you just said, ‘tough guy’.
Watch your words. You ain’t talking to some redneck Southern boy; you’re talking to a New Yorker. man.
Note to self: New York is not in the south.
Have a great evening!
Nothing special about a New Yorker. You’re no tougher than any other city. Chicago would kick your butt. I’ll summon Iron Mike Ditka to teach any NYer a lesson.
I’m sorry you’re feeling alone right now. Hope you get some good sleep tonight 🙂
So a moron that has a slight grasp on the English language?
I’m 90% sure the pitcher estes was throwing at him because of the home run last year
He wasn’t even aiming for the back or head he was aiming for the elbows because that’s what Robles injured recently
Good catch! I forgot about that. I don’t know if he was aiming for the elbows, but I don’t think they were accidents, either.
Only Yankee fans think this way. If it was judge they’d say give him an award.
Don’t blame him for being upset and his appeal should also be what about any of the pitchers getting a fine or suspension.
Manny Machado only got 5 games for throwing his bat at Josh Donaldson, and yet Josh Donaldson never threw at Machado.
No one likes manny though especially after the pedroia incident
Damn, so no reason to reinstate now until September call ups if it requires playing a man down
The appeal probably pushes out the suspension even if he’s reinstated sooner.
5D chess. I like it!
I think the Mariners can only keep him in the minors for a limited period of time.
Rehab assignments are 20 days for position players. Robles began his rehab assignment on 8/12, thus he has to finish the rehab by 8/31 or else he has to remain on the injured list.
Need more of this emotion in baseball. Far too much emotionless, corporate dribble in MLB. Sports is supposed to be about emotion, passion and drive. Another good reason to have the 9 men on the field batting so the players can hand out the appropriate punishment themselves not the commissioner’s office. If you don’t like emotions, go watch professional Tiddlywinks.
His emotions are being Bipolar!
@kingsfan1968
Bipolar because after getting hit 5 times? Okay, I’ll throw the ball at you 10 times and then we’ll go have a beer together and I won’t expect you to be angry.
Estes probably should be suspended as well. He’s hit Robles 3 times in the past year and twice in the past week, it’s hard not to think it’s intentional. Throwing a bat wasn’t the best idea on Robles part but it’s easy to see frustrations boiling over
I’m in favor of charging the catcher. I don’t know why anyone bothers charging the pitcher. The call to plunk came from the manager through the catcher. Pitcher is just carrying out the order. You’ll never be able to get to the manager, And you may not reach the pitcher. But you sure as heck can get to the catcher first.
That’s very Juan Marichal of you. John Rose oro would like a word.
Zippy must have meant John Roseboro.
b
Sure, pal. Charge the dude wearing armor. Does the catcher have to be chivalrous and take off his catcher’s helmet after the batter drops the yellow handkerchief to charge the catcher?
Easier to get out of the way of a bat than a ball. If more batters did that, there would be fewer HBP’s. Pitcher says, “Whoops, it slipped… batter can say the same thing.”
1972 ALCS!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2pRNQuKS40&pp=0gcJCf8A…
@Bucket Number Six
Guy throws low and inside and he needs to throw the bat? Get over it. I’d call the 3 outs already for that reaction and the Away teams gets 10 extra runs no matter how much the other team scores. They can either continue to play or call the game 10-0 and go home.
Seems fair to me. Robles is no Offerman.
If the bat hit Estes, maybe. This is just another bad call by MLB. No one would’ve really known this happened or cared had the MLB brought attention to it.
Did you miss the part about Jomboy?
I don’t really blame him at all for doing what he did. They just kept hitting him over and over. He didn’t even really throw the bat at the pitcher, he just flung it onto the field somewhat towards him. Let’s not act like he ran out and attacked the pitcher with the bat. 10 games seems really excessive to me, considering the circumstances.
@HBan22
Should be zero days and time to move on…
Out with an injury the entire season, finally on his way back, close to getting back to the majors, this dude decides to fling his bat at the pitcher and now will be suspended for 10 games once he does come back finally from the injury. You can’t make this stuff up , pure insanity.
Out injured all year. The dude is finally healthy enough to begin a rehab assignment and he gets plunked 5 times, including 2 by a pitcher who hit him last season.
All that rehab and hard work to get back can get taken away with a single HBP.
Im not arguing that
But the sequence of events is totally wild
Still cant throw a bat
You’d probably get less suspension if you throw a punch to his face
I’m biased but 10 games for an act in triple A is harsh, also Robles would not have done it if it was in the major leagues
Soooooft.
And Jomboy Media needs to stop pitching inside.
Jomboy probably won’t cover it because it’s AAA and it’s west coast
They would rather spend time covering the latest Aaron Boone ejection
Oops, I only quickly skimmed the article. Apparently, Jomboy Media didn’t throw at Victor Robles.
I mean..
If I’m understanding correctly he swung at 2 of the 5 pitches that hit him. The one that he threw a tantrum over flat out embarrassed him. Sounds like he should keep being pitched inside to me.
Nonsense. Opposing pitcher should be suspended too. And 10 games is HARSH. MLB is soft
And Roger PED Yankee Cheater Clemens???
Yeah, thought so. Bush league BS endorsed by an MLB desperate to create a Yankees “dynasty” full of cheaters and criminals.
As you were.