Could Machado be demoted?
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:27 am
Unless he’s copping an attitude in the clubhouse that we’re not hearing about, I think this is fairly ridiculous. He’s less than nine months removed from a major knee injury and not yet 22 years old, but he’s not allowed to have a slump? His BABIP is .257 this year. Give him one more bloop single a week and he’s batting .265. Everybody expected him to get off to a slow start this year. Now that it’s happening, people want to panic. Nobody could reasonably suggest that Schoop, Flaherty or Lombardozzi would be an upgrade, so unless the only purpose is to humble this kid, then I don’t get it.
Machado, for his part, should be very grateful that he got such a light suspension. Ten games would have been more appropriate. I understand him being unhappy with Abad for throwing at his knee, but he had done way more than enough to provoke some retaliation at that point.
