Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected during his team's 6-1 loss to the Yankees on Saturday after a flare-up over what turned out to be a rosin controversy involving New York starting pitcher Domingo Germán.
Baldelli's 12th career ejection happened after a lengthy check and discussion regarding Germán and his possible use of a grip-enhancing substance. German was checked coming off the mound after his third inning of work by crew chief James Hoye, and the check appeared to be more involved than the usual inspection. The Twins' television broadcast undertook some replay lip-reading of Hoye's talk with German, and play-by-play man Dick Bremer posited that Hoye said something along the lines of, "I told you to wipe it off."
When Germán returned for the top of the fourth, the umpires appeared to revisit the matter with Germán and an increasingly heated Aaron Boone:
Lengthy delay between innings involving Domingo Germán. Umpires gave the all clear. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is not happy. pic.twitter.com/xzSBfmaSbg
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 15, 2023
Germán was allowed to take the mound and continue pitching, which suggests that umpires did not discover clear evidence of illegal "sticky stuff," and that led to Baldelli's argument and ejection:
Rocco Baldelli thrown out of the game after arguing with umpire James Hoye. pic.twitter.com/2l8YafNljx
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) April 15, 2023
In all, the start of the half-inning was delayed by roughly five-and-a-half minutes while all this played out.
MLB prior to the start of this season announced ramped-up checks for the use of foreign substances by pitchers. Such substances have long been used by pitchers, but increased use of them and the development of more effective grip-enhancers have allowed pitchers to artificially increase spin rates and by the extension the quality of their stuff. On that point, it's worth noting that Germán through those early innings on Saturday did not show any notable increase in his spin rates.
After the game, Boone said it was a rosin issue as opposed to something involving a banned substance like spider-tack:
Aaron Boone said that Domingo German had too much rosin on his hands, which is why the umpires told him to wash his hands. “It was enough to raise a flag for him.”
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 15, 2023
As for Baldelli, he confirmed that the issue was with Germán's use of rosin and clarified his argument:
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli did not claim that German was using an illegal substance. His beef was that German was told after the third to remove excess rosin, did not when he returned for the 4th and, thus, should have been ejected.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) April 15, 2023
The use of rosin is permissible by pitchers with the following qualifiers (via MLB.com):
"Pitchers will continue to be permitted to use a rosin bag on their hand, wrist and forearm to assist in managing sweat, but they are prohibited from applying it to their gloves and uniforms, nor are they allowed to combine rosin with any other substance, such as sunscreen."
Germán entered Saturday's contest with a 5.87 ERA through his first two starts of the season. Against the Twins, however, he was perfect through five innings and wound up allowing one run on three hits through 6 1/3 innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts and no walks.