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MLB suspends Mariners' Hector Santiago 10 games after ejection for sticky stuff policy

Major League Baseball suspended Seattle Mariners pitcher Hector Santiago for 10 games after he became the first pitcher to be ejected due to a foreign substance under the league’s new crackdown policy, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Santiago, who will appeal the suspension, was also fined an undisclosed amount, per the Seattle Times.

Santiago was ejected in the fifth inning of the Mariner’s 7-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday after umpires found a substance in his glove. His suspension was supposed to start Tuesday night with their three-game road series with the Toronto Blue Jays, but will wait until his appeal is finalized.

Santiago claimed it was only rosin

Umpires ejected Santiago in the fifth inning and took his glove to be inspected after finding some substance — which the league is now cracking down on.

After the game, Santiago insisted that he wasn’t using anything illegal in his glove, and that the substance was just a mixture of sweat and rosin that turned sticky.

“All I used was rosin,” he said. “I used it on both sides, trying to keep that sweat from dripping down to the hands. That’s the only thing — I used rosin, that’s about it.”

All four umpires working the game, though, agreed together that he was using a “very noticeable” sticky substance.

"What we do is we go around the whole glove, feeling for anything that would be sticky or something," crew chief Tom Hallion said after the game. "It was very noticeable, and then the rest of the crew inspected to make sure we were all in agreement. All four agreed that it was a sticky substance and that's why he was ejected."

Santiago, 33, is in his first season with the Mariners this year after spending last season with both the New York Mets and White Sox. He holds a 1-1 record in nine appearances.

Mariners pitcher Hector Santiago
Hector Santiago became the first pitcher to be ejected under MLB's new policy on Sunday. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images) (Quinn Harris via Getty Images)

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