Why did Matt Strahm and Kutter Crawford get ejected and fined by MLB?

Former Boston Red Sox team mates Kutter Crawford and Matt Strahm decided to have a light-hearted standoff before Saturday’s Red Sox Phillies game. While it was all smiles on the field, it would seem that MLB takes the matter more seriously.

In a move that was both surprising in it’s severity and unsurprising in light of the league’s current obsession with speed of play, both players were ejected from the game and fined for their actions.

Strahm said that after the anthems were finished, he glanced over at the other team and saw Crawford grinning at him. “Zero of it was planned,” said the first-year Phillies pitcher. “Just, anthem was over, and I looked across, and Kutter kind of gave me a grin, and I knew exactly what that grin meant, so just stood there.”

It would seem that it was a playful moment done in the spirit of competition, with Strahm clarifying, “If you know me, you know competition is everything to me, so kind of felt like I was being called out right there. Looking back on it, probably not the wisest decision I’ve made in my big-league career.”

Apparently, Strahm was unaware that he had been ejected from the game for the move, saying that the umpire told him to get going and he jested that since he was on the home team, Crawford should go first. When he finally made his way to the dugout, Strahm was informed that he had been ejected from the game.

Neither team nor the league have made public the amount of money that the pitchers will be fined. It would seem that while the “let the kids play” attitude may be fine for bat flips and trash talk, it doesn’t extend to pre-game standoffs, no matter how innocent. After all, in today’s MLB, time it would appear is money.