One among baseball’s strangest on-field incidents in recent times has resulted in a one-game suspension — no less than for now.
Rodolfo Castro, the Pittsburgh Pirates infielder who had his cellphone slip out of his pocket as he slid into third base throughout a recreation final week, has been suspended for one recreation by Main League Baseball for a violation of the league’s digital system coverage. He has appealed the suspension and might be allowed to play till his attraction is determined.
He was additionally fined an undisclosed quantity.
“I simply really need M.L.B. to listen to my model of the story and ensure they perceive my coronary heart behind the whole lot,” Castro, 23, informed reporters via a Spanish-language interpreter earlier than Tuesday’s residence recreation towards the Boston Crimson Sox. “None of this was intentional, I didn’t imply for any of this to occur.”
The play in query occurred within the fourth inning of a recreation towards the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 9, the identical day Castro had been known as up from Class AAA. Castro, an infielder in his second season with Pittsburgh, slid headfirst into third and had his iPhone slide out of his pocket and onto the infield grime in Phoenix.
Whereas the play drew quite a lot of laughs, it additionally raised the likelihood that the telephone might have been getting used for some illicit cause. Castro insisted on the time that nothing like that had occurred.
“I don’t assume there’s any skilled ballplayer that might ever go on the market with any intentions of taking a cellphone,” he informed reporters on the time. “It’s horrible it occurred to me. Clearly, it was very unintentional.”
M.L.B. has labored to watch expertise use within the recreation after high-profile incidents during which the Houston Astros had an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that concerned use of the video replay room and the Boston Crimson Sox had a sign-stealing system that used Apple Watches.
Whereas M.L.B. has issued suspensions of assorted lengths this season, together with an 80-game ban of Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres over a constructive take a look at for performance-enhancing medication; a three-game ban for Tommy Pham, then of the Cincinnati Reds, over his having slapped an opponent; and a one-game ban of the Yankees’ Josh Donaldson for disrespectful feedback he made to Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox, the Castro suspension is considerably distinctive because it seems he didn’t do something deliberately mistaken.
“You keep across the recreation and also you see stuff you haven’t seen earlier than,” Pirates Supervisor Derek Shelton informed reporters after the incident. “This was only a child who made a mistake. It’s simply a kind of issues we transfer ahead from and inform him, ‘You’ll be able to’t try this.’”
Requested concerning the suspension on Tuesday, Shelton informed reporters “we respect M.L.B.’s determination” and didn’t remark additional.