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.
Also, Estes has hit him the last 3 games he’s faced Robles.
What have we learned. Estes can hit Robles, but no matter how hard he tries Robles cannot hit Estes.
And what we learned: Maybe Estes should pitch a bit better on his own part.
Robles should have thrown some fists.
If he chose to do that instead, he probably would have only gotten 5 games.
He threw a bat. That isn’t the kind of thing that should be normalized.
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.
He’s hit him the last 3 times he’s faced him
It was not at his head.
Perhaps if Robles stopped swinging at those pitches Estes would stop going in there.
@Old York
“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.”
No one apparently has explained this to any pitcher facing Tatis this year.
kc-Old York was responding to second Doug who said about throwing at batters heads.
I was responding to Old York’s comment when he said that pitchers should do more in there.
There is pitching inside and then there is headhunting. There is a difference. Headhunting is a no no.
Absolutely pitchers can pitch inside, especially if guys dive into the plate wearing more armor than some guy in the military. Of course back him off. Then they cry about being hit by a pitch.
As a old time catcher, I see both sides. And there’s no way that guy would get near my pitcher if I was behind the plate.
Baseball is too soft. We should encourage bat throwing. Even the Average Joes honed their dodgeball skills by dodging wrenches.
After hitting him how many times would you stop throwing up and inside? Serious question.
Is hitting him once enough? Probably not, you get the benefit of the doubt. Two though? Three? How many times do you need to prove that you can’t control your pitches well enough to throw up and inside to anyone before you stop trying?
@Primitive Screwhead
Practice makes perfect. I’d keep throwing there.
Robles has made a career out of getting hit by pitches. You crowd, you get hit. He probably had roid rage.
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.
Robles has long experienced a lot of HBP’s. He crowds the plate to the point of using HBP’s to pad his OBA.
He gets HBP in 3.7% of all his major league plate appearances. That’s less than 4 times per hundred. Last week he got hit 5 times in 3 days. And look at the last PA: he was back in the box in the corner away from the plate. Still got hit. Don’t make blanket statements without looking it up.
@This one belongs to the Reds you’re hyperbolic saying of batters these days wearing “more armor than some guy in the military” while describing yourself as a former CATCHER is quite something, man…
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?
He’d swing at that too…..and probably miss.
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?
If both were put in the octagon, I’d take the Southern Redneck over the New Yorker.
I also can’t help but laugh at how kcmark thinks how slick he looks and sounds by repeating the same spiel of defending Estes and talking how Robles can’t “hit” him
I’m glad you got a laugh as that was the intent. I’m not defending Estes. Just commenting because tends to swing at the same pitches that hit him.
A little plate discipline might be in order here.
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.
Banned for life? Lol.
Explain something to me, Tough Guy– why? I get the fact that he threw a bat, and yeah, you can’t do that. I’m not condoning that. But, why shouldn’t the pitcher be banned for life then, too? If this extreme outage is based on the fact that someone could’ve been hurt by the bat– well, I got news for you, a baseball can do just as much damage.
Robles had a right to be upset. I can understand his anger. He’s trying to work his way back from injury, and he gets hit 3 times, with 2 more close calls, on a rehab assignment. I’m not saying what he did was right, but I do get it. Ten games is fair. A call for anything more than that is just ridiculous, unless you want to start banning pitchers that hit batters too?
Throwing a ball and throwing a bat aren’t the same. One is expected to be thrown and the other isn’t.
When you’re throwing either at a person, there is no difference between a baseball and bat. The baseball is meant to be thrown over the plate.
GTFO. What do you say about Clemens and Piazza?
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
No one liked Donaldson either judging by all his ex teammates who called him out
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.
10 games or almost 2 weeks of now in-game at bats almost requires it’s own assignment to build back up.
He can continue playing in AAA and finish his rehab. His suspension doesn’t start until activated which will be in September
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.
Yeah, same pitches throws baseball and hits player 3 consecutive games they’ve faced each other and batter then throws bat at him because he’s rehabbing an injury and pitcher keeps throwing at him and batter clearly has bipolar. Dude, is actively continuing to throw a baseball at him at well over 90mph and Robles throws a bat in his direction no where near hitting him to let him know he’s ticked off.
Ha ha. Emotions are awesome. That doesn’t excuse the immaturity in not being able to control the destructive ones.
Dude had a right to be pissed but throwing the bat was embarrassing behaviour from an adult.
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?
Just because the catcher put the middle finger down, you think it’s his fault?
Had to mess with you.
Baseball needs to adopt the NHL and NBA rules.
1. Third man into a fight. Automatic ejection, fine and suspension.
2. Anyone leaving the dugout or bullpen. Automatic ejection, fine and suspension.
Let the pitcher and hitter go at it. When they go to the ground, umpires break it up.
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.
“Guy throws low and inside and he needs to throw the bat?”
The full story is that he’d gotten several hits already and Billy Martin ordered LaGrow to throw at him. It was intentional and everyone knew it.
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?
Jomboy connected up to MLB, if the MLB was so worried about it, they could say so. It’s disingenuous to suspend a player for something they are making money off, especially if they get to withhold money from Robles too.
Robles hasn’t hit Estes all year.
But Estes has hit Robles all year.
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
Agree. If you can commit an act in the minor leagues and get suspended for major league games. Why shouldn’t a player who commits an act a major league game be able to serve his suspension in the minor leagues?
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.
He posted it yesterday.
“Jomboy probably won’t cover it because it’s AAA and it’s west coast”
He did cover it. He posted a full video and a short. Kind of hard for him to ignore this one.
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.
The last one looked more like a really poor attempt to get out of the way, I don’t think that one should have been ruled a swing.
The pitcher, Joey Estes, has hit him in meetings before this one
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.
I was at that game, but was way too far away to see exactly what went on. It is wild that Clemens didn’t get ejected, that might have changed the whole series.
The mockery of it was that Clemens did get ejected from a postseason game earlier in his career. Totally a double standard.
I recommend not throwing bats at people. One of my main rules actually
The most shocking thing I found in the bat throwing incident after that many inside pitches and HBP over the few games was watching John Russell of all people strolling out of the dugout as the Manager! How on earth is this guy still on baseball after his epic failure at the MLB level coaching the Pirates 15 years ago. He was hired by the pirates because nobody wanted the job. He shows no urgency, has no charisma and doesn’t seem cut out to be a Manager. If you watch the video of Russell walking up to the home plate umpire during one of the HBP and he pretty much makes an instant U-Turn and heads back to the dugout after two words. He hasn’t changed one bit.
Good post, I recognized the demeanor but couldn’t place who it was. If he had actually defended his player, perhaps the whole situation would have been calmed down before it came to this.
Wow that’s a long time to harbor a grudge. Russell run over your dogs tail or something?
I actually got Russell to autograph his Texas Rangers Donruss baseball card at Pirates Fan Fest in 2009 probably. Highly sought after card these days.
Do yourself a favour and watch the Jomboy recap of Robles bat throw. Pure gold.
Over his career (majors and minors) Anthony Rizzo was HBP once every 30.9 PA.
Victor Robles over his career (majors and minors) was HBP every 22.9 PA.
That is astounding and borderline unbelievable. Go do the math. He stands on the plate.
He was not crowding the plate any more than any other player, go look at the videos.
All time HBP leader, Craig Biggio, was hit about every 44 PAs compared to Robles’ 23 PAs.
Why has 28 year old Robles been hit 188 times?
The pitcher he faced, Joey Estes, has a history of hitting Robles in case you wanted a bit more context
Sounds like Joey Estes has a history of pitching inside because it’s effective against Robles.
Both Robles and the pitchers who kept throwing at him should receive consequences.
One thing the video shows definitively is they weren’t intentionally throwing at Robles. Any talk about punishing lack of command is silly.
5 HBP in 15AB is uncalled for. Estes should be fined or suspended: Robles wasn’t crowding the plate, as some folks have accused him of, and Estes hit him 4 times over two games. If you can’t control your pitches up and in, stop throwing up and in. It’s that simple. Throwing up and in and hitting him has to become irresponsible lack of care for the safety of the opposing batters, at some point.
AAA pitchers are often the worst pitchers an organization has, especially if it’s the PCL where nearly every park is a launch pad. Most teams just call their best pitching prospects up straight from AA.
I had never seen abeyance used in a sentence before reading this article. I’d only known the word as the name of a Magic card.
Imagine being on the verge of coming back after not playing for months, and then potentially suffering another injury from one of those HBPs during a rehab game. Robles shouldn’t have thrown his bat, but I do get why he felt the way he did.
Let him play! Let him play!
(Jes, he’s on my fantasy team)
He should be suspended without pay, and ten games is not too long. But when the offense takes place in the minor leagues, I don’t think the Major League team should be penalized with loss of a roster spot. Those guys were not there. They couldn’t calm him, stop him, mentor him, etc. Yet during a playoff race, they are the ones to be penalized.
When a player is out for PEDs, the team is not penalized, though the team may have been aware (or suspicious) that there was a problem.