Jose Bautista says Rougned Odor ‘was looking for a fight’
The brawl between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers may have taken place weeks ago, but there’s still fallout from the incident. Jays outfielder Jose Bautista told Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated that he believes Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor “was looking for a fight.”
“Was [Odor] out to play baseball that day? Maybe partly,” Bautista told Verducci. “Part of me also thinks that he was looking for a fight.”
Bautista also admitted that his slide into second base was late, but said he wasn’t trying to injure Odor.
“I could have hit him,” Bautista said. “I could have hurt him. I chose not to. My cleats were down. I slid through the bag. Was it late? Yes, a hundred percent. But what can I do after they hit me? Should I ask my manager to let me pitch, which he is never going to let me do? Like, what am I supposed to do? Just sit there and take it?”
He does not feel the same way about Odor’s actions. Bautista told Verducci that he believes Odor was trying to hit him in the face during his relay throw to first base. According to Bautista, this is not the first time Odor has tried to injure other players with this method. He says there’s video to prove it.
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Bautista’s comments are clearly one-sided, though it is interesting to get some perspective from one of the players involved in the fracas. Bautista felt that since he wasn’t going to be able to retaliate on the mound, he had to try and do so while running the bases. That’s a weird way to view the situation, but no one said the unwritten rules of baseball made sense.
While he says he wasn’t trying to hurt Odor, it’s tough to really justify that when you see his slide. Sure, he may not have meant to injure him, but he did mean to make contact with him. It’s kind of like saying, “yeah, I meant to punch you in the gut, but at least I didn’t stab you.” The former should cause less harm, but it’s still going to hurt.
As for whether Odor was looking for a fight, well, that’s tough to know. He was clearly worked up after almost having his legs taken out, and definitely overreacted by throwing the punch. Even if you agree with the weird rules involved in baseball retaliation, punching a guy in the face is pretty extreme. There are other ways for teams to show displeasure with one another. Teams have used those methods for years. They rarely involve punching another player in the face.
Odor has already commented about the brawl, saying he doesn’t really regret hitting Bautista. It will be interesting to see if he has anything more to say once he hears about Bautista’s comments.
[Elsewhere: Royals fans are stuffing the All-Star balloting box again]
For now, the two will have to engage in a war of words. The Blue Jays and Rangers won’t play each other again during the regular season. If they do meet, it will be in the playoffs. Given the bad blood between both teams, that should make for one hell of an entertaining series.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
