Well baseball just announced that even though Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg with a tackle, MLB is dropping the suspension:

Even though Utley made a play no one has ever made before, baseball could find no reason to suspend Utley as “other players weren’t suspended for similar plays.”

While MLB has stated players making a tackle like Utley did, a play not seen before, MLB said plays like this will be a suspendable offense in the future. 

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Utley doesn’t think his tackle had anything to do with the new rule. 

Utley’s agent stated, “It’s unfortunate that Chase got demonized by all of this. He has never intended to hurt another player.”

In the same vein, MLB thought it was appropriate to suspend Hansel Robles for losing control of a quick pitch slider, which unfortunately came too close to a batter’s head. 

As a result, it will be fair to say the Mets pitcher who retaliates against Utley will receive a suspension for protecting his teammate. 

Overall, baseball messed up this whole situation from the beginning. Utley should’ve been ruled out. It should’ve been an inning ending double play as Utley interfered with Tejada’s attempt to turn a double play.  Baseball then decided that it was reviewable because it couldn’t be a continuation play as Tejada didn’t make a throw. Keep in mind, Tejada couldn’t make a throw because his leg was broken by an illegal tackle. 

Even though there was a rule on the books which establishes Utley’s slide was illegal, MLB determined a new rule was needed. Even though Utley’s slide forever changed Tejada’s career, baseball felt the unnecessary rule change was sufficient. There was no need to punish Utley because there was a new rule. Furthermore, even though there was no other tackle like Utley’s baseball determined since no play around second led to suspension before, Utley couldn’t be suspended. 

There’s only one way to address how baseball addressed this whole situation is