Jose Iglesias has been suspended one game and Xander Bogaerts has been fined an undisclosed amount by MLB for their actions towards umpires following Game 3 of the San Diego Padres’ wild card round loss to the Chicago Cubs.
After eight innings of getting shut down, the Padres got on the board in the ninth with a solo homer from Jackson Merrill. The next batter, Bogaerts, worked the count full against reliever Brad Keller, whose payoff pitch was tracked as a ball.
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Bogaerts certainly seemed to think it was a ball, as he started walking across home plate before home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn punched him out. Bogaerts then had words for Reyburn and was briefly joined by Padres manager Mike Shildt before walking to the dugout.
That call wound up being pretty significant. Keller hit the next two batters to put two runners on base with one out and a two-run lead. Had Bogaerts reached base, it would’ve been bases loaded and no outs. At that point, Andrew Kittredge entered the game for Keller and got the next two batters out, ending the Padres’ season with a 3-1 Cubs win.
The following day, a video surfaced of Bogaerts and Iglesias getting in a heated confrontation with Reyburn as the latter exited the field through the San Diego dugout at Wrigley Field.
Bogaerts was still upset about the call after confronting Reyburn, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune he was grateful for the advent of ABS:
“Talk about it now: What do you want me to do?” Bogaerts said. “It’s a ball. Messed up the whole game, you know? I mean, can’t go back in time and talking about it now won’t change anything. So it was bad, and thank God for ABS next year, because this is terrible.”
Barring an appeal, Iglesias will serve his suspension during the first 2026 regular season game he is considered an active player on an MLB roster. Currently scheduled to become a free agent, he may end up sitting out with a new team.
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