What a Wild Night of Baseball in Ohio!
Photo: bleachernation.com
I’m not sure how to begin this article about the action-packed Tuesday night in the state of Ohio. Maybe I should start with the big trade that occurred between the two Ohio teams and San Diego the night before the trade deadline. Maybe I should start with the fight that occurred in Cincinnati between the Reds and Pirates. If I were to decide based on which event happened first, I still wouldn’t know where to begin this article. For quite possibly the first time in major league history, a player got traded in the middle of a brawl in which he was ejected from the game.
In continuation from a bench-clearing between the Pirates and Reds earlier this season in April, the two teams got into it again last night. After an intentional fastball thrown over the head of Reds hitter Derek Dietrich and a retaliation pitch from Jared Hughes that hit Starling Marte, jawing ensued which led to the wild bench clearing. Amir Garrett was being chirped by the Pirates dugout upon taking the mound to replace the ejected Hughes. He then took matters into his own hands by charging the Pirate dugout from the mound, throwing a huge haymaker at Trevor Williams. The punch didn’t quite connect, but led to five minutes of madness between the two teams.
Photo: Yasiel Puig & Colin Moran
John Minchillo/AP
Even the coaches were in the middle of things when Reds manager David Bell charged Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle, and was wrestled to the ground by Rick Eckstein, the Pirates’ hitting coach. And as you can imagine, Yasiel Puig was right in the middle of things and had to be held back several times. Along with four Pirates players and Amir Garrett, Puig was ejected from the game. As he walked off the field and into the dugout, he wore his Reds jersey for the last time.
Sometime in the middle of all the chaos that was happening in Cincinnati, the trade deadline’s biggest trade went down. It was a three-team trade between, you guessed it, the Cincinnati Reds along with the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. Yasiel Puig learned moments later after his scrum with the Pirates that he had been traded across the state to the Cleveland Indians. Desperately wanting to add some more pop to their lineup for a playoff push, the Indians acquired Puig along with Franmil Reyes from the Padres. The cost to acquire these two bats was heavy though, because the Tribe gave up one of the most electrifying pitchers in the game in Trevor Bauer.
The Reds now have a dominant pitcher in Bauer, who is one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game and is also a guy you trust to win any game. He is a hothead however, and can be tough to manage at times. It is possible that is a reason Cleveland agreed to part ways with him, even with his tremendous amount of talent.
Photo: Trevor Bauer
Denny Medley/USA Today Sports
Along with Puig and Reyes, the Indians received Scott Moss, Logan Allen, and Victor Nova. Trevor Bauer is the only one in the deal who will be putting on a Reds jersey. As for the Padres, they now have Taylor Trammell who despite having a rough season this year, was the Reds’ #1 prospect. But at just 21 years old, Trammell has plenty of time to make adjustments to live up to the hype that surrounded him less than a year ago. He’s a guy with many tools and could be the Padres’ future center fielder for years to come, an area the Padres wanted to address.
It was certainly a wild night in baseball, especially in the state of Ohio. We kept waiting on the big trade deadline splash and it happened in the same moments as the season’s biggest brawl. You never know what you’ll get night in and night out in baseball, and that makes it a ton of fun to watch. And you can guarantee the effects of last night’s action, the trade and the brawl, will be felt later down the line this season.
Garett