Jorge Soler received a five-game suspension and was fined an undisclosed amount of money for his actions on Wednesday night in which he approached the opposing team’s dugout with a bat. Reports on Wednesday night indicated that Soler swung the bat and hit the dugout walls but those reports were proved to be inaccurate on Thursday.
Florida State League president Chuck Murphy handed out the suspension. The league did not suspend any of the other players involved in the bench clearing incident but the players that left their positions were fined.
According to reports, Javier Baez was one of Soler’s teammates that stopped him before he made it to the dugout and he never swung the bat.
Jorge Soler was remorseful for his actions. Theo Epstein said the organization does not condone his actions but support the player. According to multiple reports Soler understands what he did was wrong and was apparently very apologetic for his actions and knows something like this can never happen again.
Epstein explained that during the back and forth between Soler and the Threshers player that occurred during a majority of the game, there was something said about Soler’s family. Epstein went onto say that Soler knows that is not an excuse for what he did.
Theo Epstein from ESPN Chicago
“We condemn the act of what took place, but we support the player. We believe in Jorge as a person as well as a player. It’s our responsibility to work with him to make sure he has a better way to channel his emotions on the field and to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. So that’s our responsibility. It’s his responsibility to fully embrace that. This is a great kid. Those of you who were around Jorge at spring training can vouch for this. He’s very well-mannered, very respectful, very friendly, keeps to himself for the most part, but has a quick smile and good temperament, so this is just something that now that it’s happened we need to get ahead of it with him and make sure we give him a framework to channel his emotions a little bit more appropriately on the field.”
Alfonso Soriano plans on speaking with Soler in the very near future about the incident and Jeff Samardzija said this will not be the first time Soler faces adversity.
Jeff Samardzija from ESPN Chicago
“If you’re going to come here and plan on playing in Chicago, New York, L.A. or any big city, you have to understand it’s not going to go your way all the time You have to be able to handle that. If you can’t handle that, then you’re not going to be around for too long. You can’t lose your emotions like that, you have to stay under control, and if you do you definitely can’t use a bat. When you’re playing here, obviously everyone is competing against each other for their livelihood, and competing for their families, and themselves also, your own personality. But you also respect the guys you play with. And there’s a certain community we have. There’s a union that we share, so you can’t go at these guys in certain ways. And if you do, you have to handle it like a man, with your hands. And with your mouth and talk things out and do what you have to do. But there’s definitely limits to certain things.”