George Valera
MLBBy Chris Novak on

Thursday night, a brawl in Triple-A involving a top Major League Baseball prospect sparked significant reaction around the sports world.

Cleveland Guardians prospect George Valera, ranked 30th in MLB.com’s prospect rankings, got involved in an ugly incident that sparked a bench-clearing brawl. And Valera was accused of putting his hands on a minor league umpire.

Valera and his Columbus Clippers took on the Nashville Sounds on Thursday night. In a video on Twitter, Valera could be seen arguing with catcher Alex Jackson. Jackson feverishly defended himself, and Valera didn’t back down. In fact, the Guardian prospect took a run at the Sound catcher.

Tempers flared, and Valera could be seen hoisting his bat in the air. He then took a swing at Jackson, but the catcher was unfazed by the punch to his chest protector. The ugly incident sparked a massive bench-clearing brawl between both sides.

What’s more, different angles of the fight went viral on Twitter. As they did though, they told another story: Valera was accused of putting his hands on an umpire.

Tweets did differ on whether he punched or shoved the umpire, but the incident will no doubt put the highly-touted prospect in hot water. Valera ranks second in the Guardians’ farm system according to MLB.com’s rankings, behind right-hander Gavin Williams.

The sports world reacted to the ugly incident.

It seemed like there wasn’t much of a consensus among those who chimed in. Some liked Valera’s fight, others gasped at the incident.

[Brendan Walsh]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022

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