Tony La Russa punishing Yermin Mercedes is everything that’s wrong with baseball

Tony La Russa proved himself to be out of touch once again by punishing Yermin Mercedes for a home run.

The Chicago White Sox are one of the best teams in MLB this season and are currently taking on a bottom-feeder in the Minnesota Twins. Fans in Minnesota witnessed a total disaster Monday night as the White Sox took home a 16-4 win.

Things got so bad that Willians Astudillo had to come in and pitch. At one point he threw a total meatball to Yermin Mercedes just to get a strike. Naturally, Mercedes sent the pitch to the moon for an easy home run.

For some reason this enraged those raving about “unwritten” rules. Tony La Russa seems to be in that camp as he made it clear Mercedes would be punished.

Tony La Russa punishing Yermin Mercedes is an absolute joke

Talk about a great way to alienate yourself from a clubhouse of players. La Russa is mad at Mercedes for doing his job? The Twins are a professional baseball team the last time we checked and the White Sox batters are not supposed to take it easy on them.

La Russa even saying anything negative proves he remains a problem. That whole mindset of not playing hard the entire game needs to go away. He should be rewarding Mercedes for continuing to play hard at a time when the game is already over. Also, hitting a home run is much different than stealing a base when up 10 runs.

La Russa is trying to be a tough guy, but it appears Mercedes is still in the lineup Tuesday.

The Twins are an absolute mess and that is not anyone in Chicago’s problem. Mercedes is also a player who worked hard to land this role with the White Sox. Asking him to slow down and let opposing position players get easy strikes is such a backward way of thinking it hurts.