Major League Baseball suspended Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado for five games and fined him an undisclosed amount for intentionally flinging his bat on the field during Sunday’s game against the Oakland Athletics in Baltimore.
Joe Garagiola Jr., MLB’s senior vice president of standards and operations, also announced that A’s pitcher Fernando Abad received an undisclosed fine for intentionally throwing at Machado during the eighth inning.
Unless Machado appeals, the suspension would begin Tuesday night when the Orioles play the Boston Red Sox. If he appeals, the suspension would be put on hold until a hearing is convened.
Machado apologized for his behavior afterward. But that might not stop the Orioles from demoting him.
“That’s always an option,” Orioles general manager Dan Duquette told Fox Sports. “The guy distinguished himself in the big leagues last year. We’d much rather see him develop his skills here. But that’s always an option.”
Machado was part of two benches-clearing incidents during the weekend series with the A’s On Friday, he took exception with what he considered a hard tag by Oakland third baseman Josh Donaldson and confronted him, resulting in the two needing to be separated.
The 21-year-old Machado came back from offseason knee surgery after missing all of April and is batting just .229 with four home runs and 11 RBIs in 35 games. Last year, Machado was an All-Star who finished with a .283 average and 14 homers.