Joe Kelly was suspended for throwing at Alex Bregman’s head and New York Mets starter Marcus Stroman doesn’t understand why.
Tuesday night, Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly made a lot of fans and a lot of enemies when he threw at Alex Bregman.
3-0 pitch from Joe Kelly ends up going behind Alex Bregman. pic.twitter.com/q6P8CD5oqj
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 29, 2020
He was clearly headhunting in retaliation for the Astros’ cheating scandal—the first pitcher to do so in the regular season. However, he wasn’t ejected from the game and finished the inning. He later threw at Carlos Correa’s head before striking him out and taunting him on the way to the dugout.
JOE KELLY FIGHT CLUB PT 2
Correa almost took one to the dome pic.twitter.com/nwzuem283H
— Dodgers Talk (@LaDodgersTalk) July 29, 2020
Carlos Correa and Joe Kelly exchanged words after Kelly struck out Correa. Benches cleared following the exchange. pic.twitter.com/sVHaibpN2y
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 29, 2020
Wednesday morning comes and MLB has decided to suspend Kelly eight games for headhunting. That’s the equivalent of a 22-game suspension in a 162-game season. Count New York Mets starter Marcus Stroman among those who don’t understand the league’s response.
Makes zero sense Ken. He wasn’t even thrown out of the game. MLB siding with/protecting a team that openly and knowingly cheated their way to a World Series. He doesn’t deserve to be suspended at all. Hoping he wins his appeal. Looking forward to seeing you back out there JK! pic.twitter.com/Lekx8NHLRp
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) July 29, 2020
Stroman doesn’t believe Kelly should be suspended at all. In fact, he believes that MLB should be taking action against the players who cheated. This was simply a response to their prior actions.
The logical answer lies in the middle. Kelly deserves to be suspended for headhunting. No player, no matter how dirty or how low they’ve sunk, deserves to be hit in the head. It’s dangerous and could kill someone if the pitcher isn’t careful.
However, the Astros players getting off without any punishment has never made sense. They all cheated to win a World Series. The organization got hurt for it, the front office got hurt, the manager got hurt, and hell, even Carlos Beltran, who was a player on that World Series team, got hurt for it. Yet, none of the current Astros have suffered any repercussions.
Kelly’s actions are understandable. He was angry and hates that the game he loves has been defiled and nobody is doing anything about it. However, that’s no reason to potentially endanger someone’s life.
