Report: Pirates suspended Kela in July after Hurdle intervened in altercation

The Pittsburgh Pirates suspended right-hander Keone Kela and bullpen coach Euclides Rojas in July because of separate altercations with Pirates staff and a player, respectively, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, citing sources at various levels within the organization.

Both received two-game bans that the Pirates announced were due to contract violations.

Kela berated manager Clint Hurdle when he tried to defuse a loud altercation between the reliever and performance coach Hector Morales on July 21, sources said. Several players and team employees reportedly witnessed the fracas. The Pirates suspended Kela the next day.

Following the suspension, the 26-year-old was cryptic about what had happened.

“The narrative is what the narrative is. I know the truth, so I’m not really worried about it," Kela told reporters at the time. "I’m not going to sit here and try to justify. … I'm not going to get into any deeper details about it because that won’t benefit me or the organization.”

The Pirates reportedly tried to trade Kela around the deadline in a deal that would have sent him and right-hander Jordan Lyles to the Milwaukee Brewers. However, Pittsburgh ended up only trading Lyles to the Brewers on July 29. A day later, Kela intentionally threw a pitch over Derek Dietrich's head in a game against the Cincinnati Reds that later involved a benches-clearing brawl. The league handed him a 10-game ban.

One week after Kela's conflict with Morales and Hurdle, Rojas and right-hander Kyle Crick had to be separated after an on-field confrontation, sources told Biertempfel.

Crick apparently complained to Rojas that All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez was receiving preferential treatment by not being on the field with the rest of the pitchers during warmups. "Rojas brusquely told Crick to mind his own business, and things escalated," Biertempfel wrote. A player then reportedly went to management and argued that Rojas should receive the same punishment that Kela had.

"I think there is a little bit of jealousy there,” one source said of other relievers' feelings about Vazquez, who has sometimes worn T-shirts instead of MLB-mandated apparel during on-field warmups.

Biertempfel's sources requested anonymity due to fear of retribution from management or from their peers.