Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan has been suspended eight games by Major League Baseball for three separate incidents over the past week, including his role in an ugly bench-clearing brawl against the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night. That suspension is in addition to Morgan’s seven-game suspension for allegedly throwing a ball at a fan in Philadelphia on Aug. 21. That’s 15 games in all if Morgan’s appeal for his initial suspension is not successful. He will learn about that at a hearing in New York on Tuesday morning. No word yet on if Morgan will appeal his eight-game suspension.
Morgan’s three incidents began on Saturday night against the St. Louis Cardinals when he appeared to intentionally clip Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson on a play at home plate in the eighth inning despite no throw being made. Anderson was also a step in front of the plate and Morgan missed it completely, getting called out when teammate Ivan Rodriguez pushed him back towards it. Morgan was held out of the lineup the next day by manager Jim Riggleman, who apologized to St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa and criticized Morgan, calling the hit “unprofessional” and “out of character” for his outfielder.
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Morgan was also caught on video getting into a shouting match with some Marlins fans during Tuesday’s game at Florida. That came in the 10th inning after he had drilled Marlins catcher Brett Hayes on a close play at the plate. He was called out. Riggleman defended Morgan’s decision not to slide. But Florida’s players were furious, especially when they learned Hayes had a separated left shoulder.
On Wednesday, Marlins starting pitcher Chris Volstad hit Morgan with a pitch. That came as no surprise and Morgan simply trotted to first. But he further enraged Florida when he promptly stole second and third base in a game the Nats were losing by 11 runs. Riggleman again defended Morgan for that, saying an opponent will not dictate when or how his team runs the bases no matter what the score. But Volstad threw a pitch behind Morgan his next time up in the sixth inning and a bench-clearing brawl ensued. Morgan charged the mound and clipped Volstad with a punch before getting clotheslined by Florida first baseman Gaby Sanchez and buried under an avalanche of players.
For his part, Sanchez was suspended three games for his role in the fight. He was later hit by Nats reliever Doug Slaten, who also got three games. Riggleman has been suspended for tonight and tomorrow’s games in Pittsburgh. Washington third base coach Pat Listach, who was the second member of the team into the pile after Morgan charged the mound, earned a three-game suspension that begins on Sunday so as not to conflict with Riggleman’s punishment. Volstad gets six games and will miss one turn in the rotation. He hit three Nats batters on Wednesday and threw the pitch behind Morgan. Alex Sanabia wasn’t even playing on Wednesday night, but earned a five-game suspension from MLB for his actions during the fight. Florida pitcher Jose Veras, who was ejected from Wednesday’s game, drew an undisclosed fine. His manager, Edwin Rodriguez, was suspended one game.
The next question: What do the Nats do with Morgan in the offseason? A player who brought so much to the team last summer after a late-June trade from Pittsburgh hasn’t lived up to that promise in 2010. Morgan, whose strength was his ability to steal bases in 2009, was caught stealing 10 times in his first 22 tries – an awful 54.5-percent success rate. To be fair, he’s been thrown out just five times since June 12 in 26 attempts so that problem has been corrected. But Morgan also embarrassed himself in a home game against the Orioles on May 22. He tracked a long fly ball from Adam Jones to the wall in center, but thought the ball had cleared the fence when he leapt and missed it. A demonstrative Morgan slammed his glove on the ground while the ball sat next to him on the warning track. Teammate Josh Willingham raced over from left field to pick it up as Jones scored on an inside-the-park home run. Morgan apologized after that game.
Morgan had a .351 batting average for the Nats last summer in 49 games. He stole 24 bases in 31 tries. His OPS was .831. But Morgan’s season was cut short after he broke his left hand during a stolen-base attempt in Chicago on Aug. 27. No one expected him to match those numbers. But Washington’s front office certainly expected more production. His defensive numbers are down with a UZR/150 of just 2.2 in 2010. Again, to be fair and use a larger sample size, Morgan has a career UZR of 17.5 while playing center field. But at the plate he is one of the worst offensive players in the National League with a .635 OPS. Morgan’s on-base percentage is .317 – far below the .396 he put up with the Nats last summer.
But more than any of that, Washington needs to find out why Morgan has played with such obvious anger the last few weeks. While he is a gregarious personality in the clubhouse with his penchant for nicknames and his alter ego, Tony Plush, Morgan definitely has an edge even in casual conversation. But that rarely showed itself on the field in Pittsburgh or in Washington. So what’s changed? That will be one of the first questions asked tonight in Pittsburgh.
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