HOUSTON — The Astros, down by four runs in the ninth inning Thursday night, were starting to build some momentum. A leadoff single by Victor Caratini and a double off the wall by Taylor Trammell meant they had the tying run on deck with no outs against Yankees reliever David Bednar.
Enter Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who came onto the field and asked the umpires to check Trammell’s bat. Plate umpire Adrian Johnson, the crew chief, took the bat from an Astros bat boy on the field and huddled with his crew. The umpires went to the headset for a crew chief review to verify the bat was legal due to the discoloration of the barrel, with Trammell saying he was told the bat was “shaved down too much.”
The bat was confiscated by the umpires and handed to an authenticator stationed next to the dugout, and it was set to be sent to the league office to be examined, according to Astros manager Joe Espada.
“The bat was worn down a little bit,” Espada said. “He uses that bat all the time and I guess they thought it was an illegal bat. So the league wants to take a look at the bat. I thought it was … whatever.”
Boone said after the Yankees held on for an 8-4 win that the team noticed the bat earlier in the series and thought maybe it was illegal because it was discolored on the label. He said he spoke to a league official about it earlier Thursday.
Rule 3.02(c) reads, “No colored bat may be used in a professional game unless approved by Major League Baseball.” Trammell, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and struck out, used a bat with a lighter-colored handle and darker-colored barrel, which in itself is legal.
“The discoloration’s on the label,” Boone said. “I don’t know if it was just natural or if it was. … I don’t know, and I don’t want to accuse Taylor. I’m not saying anything untowards or whatever. We noticed it, though, on video while we were here, and we actually mentioned it to the league, and they said, ‘No, that looks like an illegal bat.’ So that was it.”
Trammell, who played five games for Boone and the Yankees last year, called the confiscation “actually ridiculous.”
“I’ve had that bat since I’ve been here,” he said. “I’ve had it for a long time. I usually take BP with it. I use it in games, I use it in [Triple-A Sugar Land], use it every time I need. The only thing [is] I just don’t have a gloss finish on my bat. It’s matte. Paint wears down. That’s what happened.”
An indignant Trammell said he has no idea how to even shave down a bat.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I feel kind of defensive right now, moreso a test of my character, like I’m going to willingly do that. Just kind of lost on that thing, and if anybody knows me knows I’m never going to cheat or anything like that. I have no idea.
“That’s baffling to me that it was even checked. They didn’t like it. Sorry. I used it the first at-bat and it wasn’t a problem. I struck out and it wasn’t a problem then.”
Trammell said he had respect for Boone from his short time in New York.
“He was straight up with me…,” he said. “In that situation, I really don’t understand it.”
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