Discipline handed down following brawl between Reds and Pirates

MLB has announced suspensions for six players and two managers in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s infamous brawl between the Reds and Pirates:

Kela receives the largest suspension after reigniting the conflict between the teams (which has existed all season) by throwing at Derek Dietrich’s head, then playing an apparently significant role in provoking Amir Garrett to charge Pittsburgh’s dugout in the ninth inning. This is just the latest controversial incident for Kela, who has developed a pretty negative reputation in recent years, being optioned by the Rangers for “clubhouse culture” reasons in 2017, then being suspended two games by the Pirates because of an altercation with a team employee earlier this month. Kela’s suspension ties the MLB record for the longest this century due to an on-field incident, matching Michael Barrett’s suspension for punching A.J. Pierzynski in the face in 2006 and Ian Kennedy’s ban after getting in a fight with Zack Greinke in 2013.

With every other player who was suspended for his involvement in the incident — Garrett, José Osuna, Jared Hughes, Kyle Crick, and Yasiel Puig — being a position player or reliever, the bans of three-plus games will cause them to miss rather significant time. Bell’s six-game suspension is also the longest in recent memory for a manager, and understandably so, since he returned to the field after already having been ejected to get involved in the ninth-inning brawl.

Obviously, while there are several massive suspensions coming down here, most of them aren’t actually going to have a real effect on anything, as the Reds are 50-56 and the Pirates are 47-61, and both teams essentially punted any minute chance that may have existed for them to slip back into the NL Wild Card race by selling at Wednesday’s trade deadline. For an Indians team that is desperately attempting to battle its way to first place in the AL Central, though, the loss of Puig for three games is a rather disappointing development.