Phillies

MLB Denies Appeal, Upholding Totally Lame Nick Castellanos Suspension

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 19th, 2021 · 3:17 PM EDT

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About two weeks ago, on April 3rd, Cincinnati’s Nick Castellanos was hit by a pitch, shared some words with Yadier Molina, and then later scored on a wild pitch. That prompted him to stand over pitcher Jake Woodford and then the benches cleared, leading to a scrum.

He was handed a two-game suspension, which was appealed and denied:

The appeal on Cincinnati outfielder Nick Castellanos’ two-game suspension has been denied, sources tell @kileymcd and me. He’ll serve both games for what MLB called “his aggressive actions and for instigating a benches-clearing incident” vs St. Louis in the second game this year.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 19, 2021

The incident was incredibly lame.

Here it is, to jog your memory:

A benches-clearing brawl broke out between the Reds and Cardinals 😱

Nick Castellanos was ejected. pic.twitter.com/U2ieMeXSgr

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 3, 2021

Why is this a story?

Because it’s another example of baseball’s “unwritten rules” taking a nothing situation and then turning it into a bogus suspension that should have been overturned, but was not. Castellanos doesn’t do anything out of line here. He makes a great play, gets up, flexes in the guy’s face for maybe two seconds (after being previously beaned), and then goes to walk away. But in baseball you’re not allowed to flip bats or celebrate strikeouts or show any of kind of interesting emotion or personality, or else the crotchety powers that be will blow a gasket.

It results in people complaining about the game and the league being out of touch, which has plenty of merit to it.

Bottom line, this shouldn’t have been a one-game suspension, let alone two games. And the fact that it was upheld is outrageous.