Skip to content

Blue Jays' Benoit: Hitters taking inside pitches too 'personally'

Evan Habeeb / USA TODAY Sports

Joaquin Benoit might not pitch again for the Toronto Blue Jays this season, after tearing his calf during a bench-clearing incident with the New York Yankees on Monday night. As far as the reliever is concerned, the entire thing was a product of baseball's "unwritten rules" being taken too far.

The entire incident started when Josh Donaldson was plunked by a Luis Severino pitch in the first inning; J.A. Happ then hit Chase Headley in retaliation, and Severino triggered the full-scale melee by throwing at Justin Smoak. Benoit, who suffered his injury while running in from the bullpen to join the fray, believes the code of retaliation is being taken a little too literally by some, preventing pitchers from throwing inside and leading to similar incidents.

"I believe as pitchers we're entitled to use the whole plate and pitch in if that's the way we're going to succeed," Benoit told reporters on Tuesday, according to John Lott of Vice Sports. "I believe that right now baseball is taking things so far that in some situations most hitters believe that they can't be brushed out. Some teams take it personally."

Related: Blue Jays' Benoit suffered torn calf during brawl with Yankees

Though his words could be interpreted as a veiled shot at some of his own teammates - Benoit's only been with the Blue Jays for two months - the 39-year-old didn't specifically cite any team or player during his rant.

For Benoit, it's an issue of being able to do his job. He doesn't mind pitching under a warning during escalating bean-ball situations, so long as he and other pitchers can still use the inside of the plate.

"That's fine," he said of an umpire's warning, "as long as you don't take away the strike zone where you can't pitch inside, and the umpires don't get too jumpy if you throw a pitch in and brush the hitter out."

For his part, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons saw things a bit differently, as to the root of Monday's incident.

"Teams pitch us inside, no doubt about that," Gibbons said. "We've had some close calls. Donaldson has been hit in the face. He almost got hit in the face again, I think it was in Yankee Stadium the last time we were there a couple of weeks ago.

"Sometimes, you've just got to deal with things."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox