ATLANTA — Major League Baseball is investigating a confrontation that occurred Saturday night involving Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Braves coach Eddie Pérez. During the incident, Pérez gestured to his head while exchanging words with the Yankees infielder.
The Yankees believed Pérez might have implied something about aiming for Chisholm’s head. However, Pérez clarified to the press that his gesture was meant to advise Chisholm to “be smart” after it seemed like Chisholm was signaling to Anthony Volpe from his position at second base, an action that is within the rules.
“I hope it wasn’t about aiming for his head, because clearly, that has no place here,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone remarked on Sunday morning at Truist Park. “If that was the intention, it’s certainly unacceptable. I hope his gesture was misunderstood, as such implications definitely warrant further examination.”
The league is in fact looking into it, a source told The Post, though it remains to be seen if anything will come of it.
The normally loquacious Chisholm was not interested in discussing the matter either Saturday night or Sunday morning.
“If you’re going to ask about [Saturday], no comment,” Chisholm said Sunday.
Video showed that while Chisholm was taking a lead off second base in the sixth inning Saturday night, during the Yankees’ four-run rally, he was making hand motions, presumably to let Volpe know what pitch was coming from Rafael Montero. The same thing happened just over a week ago when the Yankees noticed that Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz was tipping his pitches.
“Every team now, from the start of the year to the end, you’re trying to find little advantages out there,” Boone said. “You’re trying to find little ways to help you win a ballgame. That’s all within the parameters of the rules. Every team we play against is no different and we’re not either. So you’re constantly trying to find advantages where you can and where they present themselves in a certain game. That’s all good.”
Typically teams will put the blame on themselves if their opponent is able to pick up on what pitches are coming and relay that to the batter.
But when Chisholm got to third base, Pérez began talking to him from the Braves dugout, which included pointing to his head, which had Chisholm upset.
“I was just saying, ‘Be smart,’” Pérez said, per MLB.com. “I like that guy. He’s one of my favorites. And he got mad about it. I don’t know why he got mad about it. So, I was like, ‘Take it easy,’ and he started doing some [stuff].”
