Nationals Ace Cade Cavalli Gets His Suspension Reduced After Appeal
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The saga regarding Washington Nationals ace Cade Cavalli and his role in the benches-clearing incident that took place against the Boston Red Sox has come to an end.
After Major League Baseball announced that Cavalli and fellow Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas were suspended for seven and three games, respectively, for what transpired in that skirmish, the duo decided to appeal. That meant Cavalli was allowed to make his scheduled start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 5.
Now, a day later, MLB announced that Cavalli's suspension will be reduced from seven games to five. He will start serving that suspension on July 6, which means Washington will have their ace available for the finale ahead of the All-Star break.
Cade Cavalli Will Serve Five-Game Suspension
This resolution puts a finality on the incident between Cavalli, Willson Contreras and the Red Sox, for now. Cavalli shouted "sit down, boy" after he struck out Contreras, which caused Contreras to react. While Boston's first baseman said he didn't take it as racial at the time, interim manager Chad Tracy said he was shocked at the usage of the word "boy" and hoped MLB would issue a punishment.
Cavalli was apologetic for using that term, and he said he was "extremely torn up" about the situation. But he still decided to appeal the seven-game suspension that was first handed out, and he was able to get the sentence reduced down to five games.
Because of that, the right-hander could make the start against the New York Yankees on July 12, which would be Washington's final game before the All-Star break and might have an impact on the front office's trade deadline plans depending on how everything goes prior to that game.
When it comes to Cavalli's on-field performance, the Nationals are hoping they get the version who showed up against the Red Sox compared to what happened against the Pirates. When facing Boston, he had the best performance of his career with a career-best 13 strikeouts during seven shutout innings where he allowed just one hit. But against Pittsburgh the following outing, he was pulled after just 2 1/3 innings after he allowed three earned runs.
Now that there's a resolution on his punishment for his role in the brawl with the Red Sox, perhaps that will allow Cavalli to just focus on pitching and deliver another gem for the Nationals against the Yankees in what looks like an important game.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai