CLEARWATER, Fla. — Chase Utley's rolling block slide on the Mets' Ruben Tejada in last year's playoffs broke the shortstop's leg and was so egregious that Major League Baseball instituted a rule on Feb. 25 banning those plays, and yet Utley's suspension for it has been overturned, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Utley, who signed a one-year, $7 million contract to stay with the Dodgers in 2016, was supposed to serve the two-game ban to start the season. Instead, he'll be eligible to play.
MLB's reasoning in rescinding the suspension was that slides like Utley's had been inconsistently enforced before. Certainly, the stage on which the slide took place and the resulting injury to Tejada played a role in the public reaction and baseball's initial decision to suspend Utley.
"I don't care really," Tejada told ESPN's Adam Rubin Sunday. "I don't care. I care about me. I'm healthy here. I'm happy here. So I don't care about what's going to happen there or what's the decision they take there."
The new rule pertaining to such slides says the runner must make "a bona fide attempt to reach and remain on the base." The rule describes "a bona fide slide" as beginning the slide before reaching the base, being in position to reach the base with a hand or foot, being able to remain on the base after sliding, and sliding within reach of the base without changing the pathway to initiate contact with the fielder.