NEWSLETTER
San Fransisco Giants lefty Carlos Rodon is pitching through his second straight strong season, which, with an opt-out in his contract, could set him up for a big payday this offseason.
Not that every start has been pristine, mind you. His outing last week against the Dodgers featured five earned runs over five innings of work, and he allowed another five earned runs last night against the Diamondbacks.
The frustration for Rodon spilled over by the middle innings, when he returned to the dugout to take his anger out on a bat. The problem? His teammate Thairo Estrada was in the path of the bat that Rodon furiously kicked:
Just one of those what-on-earth-were-you-thinking moments, though you already know the answer is “I wasn’t thinking.” If you watch, there really was nowhere that bat could go EXCEPT into a teammate. Just a mindboggling loss of temper and dangerous situation created. Self control is pretty important on the baseball diamond and, apparently, also in the dugout.
I almost don’t know what to say, because it’s great that Estrada was ultimately OK and stayed in the game, but this definitely doesn’t reflect well on a guy like Rodon, hoping to get a monster contract in the offseason. He’ll still get paid, yes, but this is gonna come up in conversations about adding that extra year or whatever.
Also? It’s pretty unlikely that the Giants become sellers over the next few days (they are now a game under .500, and 2.5 games back of the last Wild Card), but if they decided to pull the plug, you have to wonder if Rodon just slightly dinged his trade value.
Carlos Rodon was obviously apologetic after the game:
