MLB announces suspensions for Yankees/Tigers brawl

Following last night’s brawl between the Yankees and Tigers, Major League Baseball has announced the corresponding suspensions and fines for the incident. In total, two Yankees were suspended and another six were hit with fines. The Tigers, meanwhile, were hit with three bans and an additional fine.

As expected, Gary Sanchez was suspended, but luckily only for four games. He was seen sneaking in shots at Miguel Cabrera while he was in the scrum. MLB doesn’t take kindly to cheap shots, and Gary had no business being out there in the first place. The fact that it was only four games is kind of a blessing.

Austin Romine was hit with a two-game ban for throwing punches. Sure, he was mostly in the fight because he was protecting himself, but it’s clear MLB didn’t take that into consideration when he was seen throwing body shots during the melee.

Obviously it’s a problem when both your catchers get suspended. Kyle Higashioka is still hurt and will not be a major league option at this time. In preparation for the coming suspensions, Joe Girardi spoke about trying to stagger the appeals in order to get at least one catcher in the game. They may be forced to make a 40-man roster move, bringing Eddy Rodriguez up from Triple-A.

Joe Girardi, Rob Thomson, Brett Gardner, and Tommy Kahnle were all fined for their part in Thursday’s game. Garrett Cooper and Clint Frazier were unfortunately hit with fines because they were on the field while on the disabled list, which is not allowed.

Justice was done with MLB giving Miguel Cabrera seven games for inciting this whole brawl and for throwing punches. Yes, no one likes getting thrown at, but no one likes getting punched in the face either. The funny thing is that Cabrera didn’t even land a single punch.

MLB also suspended Alex Wilson for intentionally hitting a batter after warnings had been issued to both benches. Manager Brad Ausmus was banned for one game for Wilson’s actions. Jose Iglesias was also fined after he and Gardner caused another scuffle later in the game. It’s too bad Michael Fulmer didn’t get hit with anything, since it’s his fault all this happened in the first place.

Despite everything that happened last night, it would seem that the Yankees got away pretty clean, all things considered. Gary Sanchez could have gotten a substantially longer sentence, and both he and Aaron Judge are still healthy. It’s also pretty remarkable that neither Dellin Betances or David Robertson were penalized in any way, considering they also hit batters after being warned—and Dellin hit a guy in the hit! I guess MLB was convinced it wasn’t intentional.

Hopefully these suspensions don’t end up hurting the Yankees too badly down the stretch. They are in a playoff race and need Gary’s bat in the lineup. In September, four games sounds like an eternity.