One day after his latest on-field incident—a brawl with Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado—reports have surfaced that the Kansas City Royals are considering trading pitcher Yordano Ventura.
Continue for updates.
Royals Tired of Ventura's Act
Wednesday, June 8
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported the Royals have offered Ventura to two teams "within the past month." Passan did not disclose the teams, as his sources were anonymous executives.
Ventura, 25, is 4-4 with a 5.32 ERA and 1.53 WHIP in 2016. His struggles reached a high point Tuesday night, as he fired a fifth-inning fastball into the ribs of Machado. The two-time All-Star, who also has a reputation of having a fiery temper, strode to the mound and landed a punch to Ventura's face before taking him to the ground.
Benches cleared, and both players were ejected and will likely face suspension for their actions. Machado had admired a long fly ball earlier in the game, which led to Ventura jawing at him before plunking him in the next at-bat.
Yet after the game, Machado's punch seemed to fade into the background, as the focus shifted to Ventura's troubling pattern of behavior. Orioles outfielder Adam Jones lauded his teammate for defending himself while expressing frustration with Ventura, per Steve Melewski of MASN Sports:
Screw it, defend yourself. Someone is trying to hurt you maliciously, you go out there and defend yourself. I hope the league reviews what happened. When you have a weapon at 100 mph and you don’t have to hit, and you are trying to hurt somebody, that is not part of the game.
Tonight, Manny handled it himself and I couldn’t be happier for him. ... I knew it was going to happen. The guy has electric stuff and the talent is all there, but between the ears, there is a circuit board off balance. I don’t get it. I don’t get it.
For his part, Machado expressed zero regret to Melewski for his actions and again pointed at Ventura's attempt to hurt him:
I don’t regret anything. It is part of the game. Reactions fly. When someone is throwing 99 (mph) at you, it is going to hurt. You can ruin somebody’s career, so you don’t think in that situation, you just react. Whatever happened happened and we just have to move forward. All that matters is we came out with a W.
Royals manager Ned Yost acknowledged Ventura's teammates have "probably" grown a little weary of these situations.
“There’s a little frustration when things like this happen, yeah," Yost said, per Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star.
Ventura was involved in similar incidents twice last season. MLB fined him last April for intentionally hitting Brett Lawrie and suspended him for seven games after an argument with Adam Eaton led to another bench-clearing brawl.
Passan also wrote Ventura is planning to hit Toronto Blue Jays star Jose Bautista the next time the teams play. Bautista and Ventura had their issues with each other last August.
This is a lot of trouble for a player who has gotten progressively worse in every MLB season. The Royals and other teams likely remain enamored with his talent, but until Ventura reaches a new level of maturity, he'll never realize his full potential.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments