New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner told Newsday that he was fined “thousands of dollars” in June for violating Major League Baseball’s pace-of-play rules and he’s not happy about it.
The New York Post reported the total Gardner was fined was approximately $3,500.
Gardner told reporters that “nothing I say about that is going to do me any good,” but he made it clear to Newsday that he isn’t happy about being singled out for taking too long, in MLB’s opinion, to get into the batter’s box.
“My agent started taking care of it,” Gardner said. “I told them don’t talk to me about it. I’ve got more things to worry about than taking three seconds too long to get to the box. Somebody else can (throw pickoff throws to first base) 27 times in a game and waste 15 minutes of everybody’s time, and I get fined thousands of dollars taking three seconds too long to get in the box.”
Gardner isn’t the first player to be fined for violating MLB’s pace-of-play policy. Although MLB doesn’t publicly disclose fines, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones estimated in an interview with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM last December that he was fined $50,000 last season for violating the rules.