KC Royals: Yordano Ventura Drops Appeal To Suspsension

KC Royals no. 1 starter Yordano Ventura dropped his appeal to his seven-game suspension from Major League Baseball, and will begin serving immediately.

The official Kansas City Royals Twitter account tweeted the news Thursday afternoon:

Yordano Ventura announces that he will drop his appeal of his 7-game suspension & begin serving tonight. #Royals
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 30, 2015

Ventura had been suspended by MLB for his part in inciting last week’s brawl with the Chicago White Sox that saw four KC Royals and two White Sox players receive punishment from the league.

The KC Royals were clever to drop Ventura’s appeal the day after starting against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday, to minimize the disruption to the team’s rotation.

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Yordano Ventura’s demonstrative behavior on the mound has been a big part of the Kansas City Royals new image as baseball’s bad boys around the league. Along with last week’s screaming match with White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton, Ventura also beaned Brett Lawrie April 17 in retaliation for Alcides Escobar’s knee injury.

Yordano Ventura also engaged in a jawing contest with 2014 MVP Mike Trout for no apparent reason on April 12, which caused another benches clearing incident.

In both cases, it wasn’t so much Yordano’s Ventura’s actions on the field as his obvious confrontational behavior that has drawn such a strong reaction from the league office.

In an ESPN.com story about the KC Royals new image, former Kansas City Star reporter Elizabeth Merrill wrote:

"Ventura is a maddening mystery. Last year he distinguished himself as much for being unflappable as for throwing hard. This is the same guy who took the mound in Game 6 of the World Series, just after his friend Oscar Taveras was killed in a car accident, with Kansas City facing elimination. Ventura wrote Taveras’ initials on his cap and went out and threw seven shutout innings.These days, everything seems to get to him."

However, not everyone thinks Yordano Ventura and the Royals are truly confrontational. Chicago’s Adam Eaton told Merrill:

"“I don’t think they’re punks,” Eaton says. “I don’t believe that for a second. They’re a bunch of young guys who are very, very good. I think they’re trying to find their identity.”"

Whatever the exact truth may be, Yordano Ventura will now have a full week to think about his recent behavior. Hopefully, he will figure out a way to tone it down a little bit without losing his intensity.

Next: Yordano Ventura Needs To Grow Up

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