Yermin Mercedes – Chicago White Sox (6) pic.twitter.com/4Ig4e1sTuK
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) May 18, 2021
It seems that baseball only grabs the national spotlight these days when there’s some sort of debate about the unwritten rules.
The latest example stemmed from a fairly bizarre incident that took place during the Twins-White Sox game on Monday, when Yermin Mercedes launched a 49 MPH pitch from Twins position player Willians Astudillo on a 3-0 count, while the White Sox led 15-4 in the ninth inning.
Interestingly it wasn’t the Twins who got triggered at the incident, at least initially, but rather Mercedes’ own manager, the old-school Tony LaRussa, who said that Mercedes should not have swung and ignored his sign not to. The next game after the Twins threw at Mercedes in retaliation, LaRussa bizarrely defended them, saying that he was fine with Minnesota trying to hit his player.
If all of this seems silly to you, you’re not the only one. Giants starting pitcher Alex Wood thinks the unwritten rules are being misapplied here, and said so in a tweet on Tuesday.
If there’s a position player pitching in a big league game all “rules” are out the window imho. Plus do y’all realize how hard that is to launch a 49mph pitch 400 feet lol? Give the people what they want.
— Alex Wood (@Awood45) May 18, 2021
He explained his position in detail when joining Murph & Mac on Wednesday morning.
“I saw some stuff about him potentially getting the take sign,” Wood said. “I don’t know the details about that, I don’t know if he missed the take sign, I don’t know if he blatantly ignored the take sign. And there’s some order there. If you get a sign from your manager, you follow what your manager says regardless of the situation. That’s the respect factor of it, that’s where I stand on that. And I don’t know the details of that.
“What I tweeted out, if a position player to me is pitching in a big league game, to me all rules are out the window, in my opinion. You’ve essentially given up. There’s no rhyme or reason for any decision, any unwritten rules, moving forward. Honestly at the end of the day, if he pops the ball up to the shortstop, he looks like an idiot. Swinging 3-0, trying to go deep. It’s also incredibly hard to hit a 49 MPH pitch 400-plus feet, and that’s what people want to see.
“To me, if that was a big-league pitcher, one of their relievers in the game, my thought process is maybe a little bit different there. When a position player is in the game, there’s no rules anymore in my opinion.”
Listen to the full interview below.