{"id":757512,"date":"2026-07-21T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/757512\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:00:22","slug":"jose-caballero-defends-tactics-that-sparked-yankees-pirates-scuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/757512\/","title":{"rendered":"Jose Caballero defends tactics that sparked Yankees-Pirates scuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jos\u00e9 Caballero claimed \u201cthe whole league should know who I am\u201d after he enraged Dennis Santana with his time-wasting in the batter\u2019s box and caused the benches to clear in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees infielder has gained a reputation for not engaging with pitchers until the last possible moment, and it set off the Pirates pitcher Monday night \u2014 even after he grounded Caballero into a double play.<\/p>\n<p>Caballero hit a tame grounder to the pitcher before being thrown out moments later, but the pair jawed after the play concluded as things quickly escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Caballero said after the game that he didn\u2019t believe he and Santana could actually hear each other\u2019s barbs \u2014 but that <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/20\/sports\/jose-caballero-dennis-santana-spark-yankees-pirates-scuffle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">didn\u2019t stop both benches and bullpens from swarming the field<\/a> as the game was delayed several minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole league should know who I am, what I do in the box, and they should be aware of it,\u201d Caballero said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd for you to be mad at something the league implemented in this league [batters have until eight seconds left in the pitch clock to engage], he shouldn\u2019t be mad at me \u2014 he should be mad at someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.46077033;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40043550\" width=\"862\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/new-york-yankees-shortstop-jos-135047051_693cac.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero is escorted off the field after a scuffle with Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana.\" class=\"wp-image-40043550\"  \/>Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero #72 is walked back to the dugout after a scuffle breaks out between Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana #60. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Santana admitted he was aware of Caballero\u2019s strategy \u201ca little bit\u201d before the game, but that it\u2019s \u201cnot my problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He admitted that he got \u201ccaught up in the game,\u201d and that he didn\u2019t think Caballero should be delaying him on every pitch with the Yankees already leading 8-5.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Boone, meanwhile, cracked that \u201csometimes boys will be boys,\u201d but admitted that pitchers can be caught off guard by Caballero\u2019s antics.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.1596829;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40043554\" width=\"684\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gets-enraged-new-york-yankees-135046821.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana is restrained by teammates.\" class=\"wp-image-40043554\"  \/>Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana (60) gets enraged at New York Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero (72) causing both benches to clear during the eighth inning when the New York Yankees played the Pittsburgh Pirates Monday, July 20, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI completely understand, it\u2019s part of his process getting ready mentally to hit. And frankly, I think more guys should,\u201d Boone said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re not used to it, you should practice,\u201d Caballero added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Caballero claimed \u201cthe whole league should know who I am\u201d after he enraged Dennis Santana with his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,1965,4,62,10,776,64,4297,185],"class_list":["post-757512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-jose-caballero","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116957388722637123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}