Amir Garrett suspended 8 games, David Bell 6 for roles in Reds/Pirates brawl

The July 30th brawl between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates was many thing. It was embarrassing, for one, especially given that these two teams had already come to blows once this season thanks to Pirates pitching playing fun police. It was surreal, too, what with the already traded Yasiel Puig in the mix defending his teammates, and with David Bell emerging from the locker room after having previously been ejected to get in the face of Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.

The fact is, Keone Kela’s ‘message’ pitch up and in to Derek Dietrich - who’s hit 7 dingers against Pirates pitching already this year - and the immediate fallout are about to alter the Reds season in the immediate wake of the season-altering trades made at yesterday’s deadline. According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the lengthy suspensions have been handed down, with each of Kela, Garrett, and Bell set to be sidelined for significant time.

The Athletic’s MC Leatherpants later chipped in with the entirety of the suspensions, with Jared Hughes out for 3 games, too.

That means the Reds will be without their top lefty (who’s pretty well been their top reliever all year) and their dependable righty sinkerballer, as well as sans manager, as Bell serves yet another suspension. And given that the club just jettisoned Scooter Gennett, Tanner Roark, and Yasiel Puig (who’ll serve his suspension while with Cleveland) in trades, that’s a heck of a lot of dugout turnover as the club prepares to enter their post-deadline play having won each of their last 3 series.

The moves made in the last two days were pretty clearly with an eye towards 2020, not to making some miraculous run in 2019. Trevor Bauer will help with both, to be sure, but the Reds have already begun to turn this season over to the younger, inexperienced bats of Josh VanMeter, Philip Ervin, Jose Peraza, and now Aristides Aquino, and we’ll get to see if there’s any momentum at all left for the last third of the season with a trio of otherwise key parts not with the team thanks to this brawl.