The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were embroiled in some controversy this weekend. On Saturday, the Red Sox appeared to throw at Yankees slugger Aaron Judge in retaliation for Yankees starter Gerrit Cole hitting and intentionally walking Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers in consecutive at bats.
After the game, Cora made some comments that appeared to insinuate that the Red Sox were trying to intentionally hit Judge, saying “It was closed yesterday around the sixth inning. We had our chance. It didn't happen.” Major League Baseball then promptly launched an investigation on Cora and the Red Sox to determine whether or not they intentionally hit Judge.
MLB decided not to discipline Cora. Ahead of Tuesday's game against the Seattle Mariners, Yankees manager Aaron Boone spoke about that decision, and threw some shade at his arch-rivals per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com
“I feel like we're past this weekend,” Boone said. “Chances are, we're not going to play them anymore this year. We've got too much important things going on in front of us to really get caught up in that.”
Boone is absolutely right. After the Red Sox lost three of four against the Yankees, and took another loss again on Tuesday, they are now five games back of the Minnesota Twins for the third and final American League Wild Card spot. Instead of continuing to stoke the fire between the two teams, Boone is deciding to take the high road and focus on his own team's success and postseason aspirations.
Did MLB make the right decision to not discipline Alex Cora for his comments about throwing at Aaron Judge?
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While Yankees fans are probably not thrilled about Cora avoiding any sort of suspension or fine for his comments, it makes sense. There was an obvious back and forth during Saturday's game. An argument could be made that Cole should also have faced some sort of punishment for appearing to intentionally hit Devers.
Yes, Cora should have probably been more calculated in the way he addressed the incident. However, MLB made the right call in staying out of this and letting this story die down. The Red Sox and the Yankees have one of the biggest rivalries in baseball. If they decided to lay down suspensions or fines, then there is a real chance that this storyline could have continued to build up going into next season and more players could potentially be put in danger.
