Baltimore Orioles: Manny Machado suspended for five games

While an official announcement has not yet been made by the Baltimore Orioles, Major League Baseball has handed down it’s discipline to Manny Machado (and Fernando Abad – who I’ll get to in a moment) in the wake of Sunday’s “incident.” Machado has received a five-game suspension (and a fine). On the other hand, Fernando Abad, the pitcher that threw at Machado, received only a fine for his part in what happened.

Fans on both sides can debate the justice in that all they want, however I’m sure the league won’t tack anything onto Abad’s penalty.

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Machado is planning on appealing the suspension, which should come as no surprise to anyone. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me if Abad appeals his fine as well. However my recommendation to Machado would be not to appeal and just start serving the suspension. While you hate to say this game is more important to that game and so forth, I would submit that the games against Toronto this weekend are very slightly more important than the ones against Boston right now – simply because the Orioles are chasing Toronto for the time being.

So if Machado just took his suspension today, he’d be out for the remainder of the Boston series and the first three games of the Toronto series. If he appeals, odds are he’d be out for the entire Toronto series. That may be splitting hairs, however it’s worth considering. It’s unclear how long MLB will take to consider his appeal, however Machado will of course be granted the right to play during the appeal process, so I would expect him to be in the lineup tonight.