What did Texas Rangers prospect, from Forney, do to earn a 10-game ban from MLB?
Mason Englert fought the law, and the law won.
Englert is a pitching prospect at Low A Down East for the Texas Rangers, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2018 draft from Forney High School.
The law is MLB, which suspended Englert 10 games for having a foreign substance on his belt during his start Sunday. Umpires discovered the substance in the fourth inning and ejected Englert on the spot.
“We support the decision made by Major League Baseball,” assistant general manager Mike Daly said. “This as a learning experience for Mason and will help us to educate the pitchers in our minor-league system.”
The use of substances to doctor balls has been a hot-button issue the past few weeks in baseball. St. Louis manager Mike Shildt called it baseball’s “dirty little secret” last week after umpire Joe West told Cardinals pitcher Giovanny Gallegos to switch hats because the one he had on had sunscreen on the bill.
“First of all, Gio wears the same hat all year,” Shildt told reporters. “Hats accrue dirt. Hats accrue substances. … Did Gio have some sunscreen at some point in his career to make sure he doesn’t get some kind of melanoma? Possibly. Does he use rosin to help out? Possibly. Are these things that baseball really wants to crack down on? No.”
Whatever the substance was Englert was using, it wasn’t helping. He was charged with six runs in 3 2/3 innings in his fourth start of the season.
Those are also the first four starts of his career after he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow during the offseason before the 2019 season and underwent Tommy John surgery.
Thanks to the new schedule this season in the minors, where teams play a six-game series against each other, Englert will miss only one start.
