Atlanta Braves bench coach Eddie Perez is giving his side of Saturday night’s exchange with Jazz Chisholm.
Perez got heated with the New York Yankees infielder Chisholm in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game at Truist Field in Atlanta, Ga. Chisholm was standing on third base when Perez began yelling at him from the dugout. After Chisholm yelled back and gave Perez a number of dismissive gestures, Perez was seen pointing at his head. That led to speculation from the Yankees home broadcast that Perez was threatening to have Chisholm hit in the head during his next at-bat.
You can see the full video of the incident here.
Speaking with reporters after the game, which the Yankees won 12-9, Perez denied threatening Chisholm. Instead, Perez said that he saw Chisholm giving signs to the batter from second base and that the head-pointing was his way of telling Chisholm to “think.”
“I like that kid,” Perez added, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
Indeed, video circulated online of Chisholm appearing to relay a location sign to teammate Anthony Volpe while Volpe was at the plate during that sixth inning.
Here is the sixth inning sequence that led Eddie Perez to say something to Jazz Chisholm about relaying location. Chisholm’s right arm movement got Perez’s attention. pic.twitter.com/nK6c5vgYQ8
https://twitter.com/mlbbowman/status/1946783116556698014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1946783116556698014%7Ctwgr%5E935b6a80ce1fa43cff18b7e580943c1525831fa2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fbraves-coach-explains-yell-jazz-chisholm-eddie-perez%2F708363
There is nothing illegal about stealing and relaying opposing signs (unless, of course, it is a Houston Astros-esque situation where technology is involved). But the practice is still generally frowned upon and tends to cause tension between rival teams.
We saw another incident in Major League Baseball last month of a player and an opposing coach getting into it over an alleged theft of signs. It looks like that is also what happened between Chisholm and Perez in Saturday’s game.
