Machado-Pedroia debacle should spur change for MLB

Manny Machado’s late slide into Dustin Pedroia kicked off a weekend-long debate about retaliation in baseball.

Major League Baseball is not governed by all of the rules of the real world. A loose code of unwritten rules govern what goes on between the lines, with the Commissioner only stepping in when someone takes their vigilante justice too far. So, it was no surprise that Manny Machado found himself anticipating a beanball all weekend after upending Dustin Pedroia on Friday night.

There is no debating the fact that Machado slid into second base late, which caused his foot to fly off the bag and into Pedroia as he went past. However, there was no intent. When it became clear to Machado that he was on a collision course with the Red Sox second baseman, his hands went out to try and hold Pedroia up. It was a bang, bang play on a slow roller, and Machado was hustling in to try and beat the throw, not injury Pedroia.

For his part, Pedroia left the game, but took the contact in stride. He did not criticize Machado to the press, and put the blame on himself for being out of position.

"“I don’t even know what the rule is. I’ve turned the best double play in the major leagues for 11 years. I don’t need a [expletive] rule, let’s be honest,” he said. “The rule’s irrelevant. The rule’s for people with bad footwork, that’s it.”"

But still, the Red Sox were incensed that Machado took Pedroia out. Perhaps the reaction would not have been so visceral if Marco Hernandez was taken out at second by Ryan Flaherty. Machado’s reputation as a hot head proceeds him, and though he has never been accused of being a dirty player, he is not the most beloved player in the AL East. Pedroia, the new de facto captain of the Red Sox after the retirement of David Ortiz, tried to downplay the situation and prevent a beanball war from escalating.

The Boston sports media, which has never been accused of bias, overreaction, and homerism, was out in force on Saturday leading up to the rest of the series, and retaliation seemed to be giddily anticipated. Everyone’s favorite Boston sports personality Pete Abraham wrote in a since-deleted tweet that you “could make book,” on Machado wearing a pitch before the end of the series. A WEEI writer called Macahdo “all that is wrong with baseball.”

There’s a right and a wrong way to get revenge with a beanball. Knuckleballer Steven Wright was on the mound the day after the slide, and he is no one’s first choice to throw a retaliatory pitch. The Orioles won the game 4-2, and the Red Sox would have been foolish to put an extra man on base for free in a tight game. They finally got their chance to throw at Machado on Sunday afternoon with a 6-0 lead.

It goes without saying that if you throw at someone’s head, you are automatically tossed. Machado handled the moment with maturity, and responded by drilling a double to drive in a run. Pedroia looked on from the dugout, perturbed, because he did not want Machado to be drilled in the first place.

Pitchers are taught to throw at the hip or lower when throwing a beanball. Had that pitch made contact with Machado’s face, it could have severely damaged his career. This type of pitch does not just slip out of a pitcher’s hand. You do not miss the butt by that much, no matter how bad your command of a baseball is. Barnes meant to target Machado’s head, and there is no place for that type of action in the game.

Pedroia made a big show of telling Machado that he did not want the pitch thrown. They texted after the game, as they did after the initial incident on Friday night, and Machado stated his respect for Pedroia. Both players knew there was no real intent in the slide other than the potential of beating the throw and getting into scoring position in a 2-0 game.

The Orioles did not take kindly to Pedroia coming out against his teammates. Closer Zach Britton had some of the strongest statements on record.

"“Dustin, him telling Manny, ‘Hey, that didn’t come from me’ may be even more frustrating,” Britton told BaltimoreBaseball.com. “Because he’s the leader of that clubhouse and if he can’t control his own teammates, then there’s a bigger issue over there.”"

Britton has a very valid point. If Pedroia felt the slide was dirty, then he would have been more than within his rights to discuss retaliation with his bullpen. If he was staunchly against the brushback, Matt Barnes would have known that.

With 12 years in the big leagues, all spent with Boston, Pedroia had the final say in this situation, but he did not make it clear that he wanted the feud to end. Or worse, he saw how badly Barnes executed the beanball, and felt the need to throw his teammate under the bus. If that is the case, that may be even worse than allowing the pitcher to take his shot at Machado. As a leader in the clubhouse, Pedroia should have owned up to his complicity in the matter, no matter how bad it looked when 100 mph was zooming past Machado’s ear.

Beanballs and brushbacks have been a part of baseball for generations, and they are not going away regardless of how much more emphasis is placed on player safety than in years past. The Orioles and Red Sox have a fierce rivalry, and this was the right combination of players and events to ratchet things up past a boiling point. The high heater that nearly took Machado’s head off, as well as the waffling on Pedroia’s part, could only serve to keep tensions high for the rest of the season.

At the end of the day, baseball is baseball. There will be hard slides and second baseman taking a spill from time to time. It is a game played by men obsessed with evening scores and making sure the protocol that has governed the game for years is followed to a strict tee. Matt Barnes threw at Machado, got tossed, and offered a lame excuse because that’s just what you do. No need to think. If change is not forced upon the players, beanballs will remain a part of the game for years.

The flames of the Machado situation had been fanned for two straight days by the pitchfork-sharpening Boston media. With a big lead in the eighth inning on Sunday, it was the right time to take a shot at Machado and put the issue to rest and avoid it becoming a distraction the next time the Orioles and Red Sox faced each other.

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Had Barnes just caught Macahado in the fat part of his leg instead of nearly hitting him in the head, the conversation is over. Instead, the Red Sox have a potentially fractured clubhouse and a likely suspended reliever. MLB has the ability to take a stance on revenge pitches, and they must throw the book at Barnes, and perhaps manager John Farrell, who obviously did not do enough to squash the testosterone-fueled mentality in his own clubhouse.

Commissioner Rob Manfred shouldn’t need a come-to-Jesus moment of reckoning like a superstar player being lost to a concussion for weeks to take a harder stand against beanballs. There is no more room and no more excuse for allowing players to hurl baseballs at 90-plus mph past each others’ heads.