NEWSLETTER
No one will argue that pitching is a dangerous enterprise. Not only are you subject to myriad arm injuries throughout your career, but there’s the ever-present risk of a batter taking one back up the box. We saw it very recently, as Johnny Cueto took a liner off of his forehead, and was thankfully OK.
But do pitchers now have to start worrying about their own catchers taking them out? Just last week, Reds catcher Chad Tromp inadvertently hit his own pitcher on a throw to second.
And now, it’s happened again! Blue Jays catcher A.J. Jimenez was trying to make a throw to second when he popped pitcher Drew Hutchison in the head, instead:
Your browser does not support iframes.
As you could see, the throw was really poor. It wasn’t a matter of Hutchison failing to get out of the way.
Although Hutchison exited the game, he later laughed about it, joking that that’s what he gets for walking the leadoff man, and seems to be fine. (Which is good, because that’s what makes it OK for us also to now laugh about it! Doink!)
Pitcher safety is actually a legitimately serious issue, so I won’t be making light of that part. But you certainly hope pitchers don’t have to also be protected against their own catchers! Then again, catchers are on the receiving end of ball after ball thrown in their direction … maybe it was only a matter of time before a few of them snapped and returned the favor.
