Though it is far from his first one, Aroldis Chapman may have just gotten the strangest suspension of his MLB career.
The Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Chapman was ejected from Monday’s game against the New York Mets. Chapman was unhappy about what he thought was a number of missed strike calls in the eighth inning and let home-plate umpire Edwin Mescoso know about it.
Mescoso went on to throw Chapman out of the game on the spot, leading to Chapman exchanging a few more words with Mescoso before going on his way.
On Thursday, Major League Baseball announced that they were disciplining Chapman over the incident with Mescoso. Chapman is being suspended for two games and also being fined (though he can appeal the punishment, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post).
That already looked like a very quick hook on Mescoso’s part, so it is even stranger that Chapman is being suspended for two more games on top of it. Seemingly the only plausible explanation is that Chapman must have said something pretty offensive to Mescoso there.
For Chapman, who now owns a 4.76 ERA over nine appearances thus far in his first season with Pittsburgh, we have seen much more heated incidents involving him before. But Monday’s exchange with Mescoso did not quite seem to rise to the same level.
More must-reads: