Cleveland Indians pitcher Zach Plesac took to social media on Thursday to “get the truth” about the incident last week that landed him and teammate Mike Clevinger on the MLB Restricted List.
In a video posted on Instagram, Plesac criticized the news media for doing “some bad things”, five days after the team sent him home for breaking the door during a weekend road trip in Chicago.
“Really, I’m distrustful of the way the media has handled this whole situation around our team,” Plesac said in the video he recorded while driving a car. In it, Plesac admitted that after his start on Saturday with food he went out to friends and returned late to the team hotel, but determined that he was following the CDC rules.
“The media portrays me and my best friend and teammate to be angry with our actions when we were really … practicing safe practices,” Plesac said.
The Indians told Plesac to quarantine and sent him home via a car service so he would not be on the team plane. He and Clevinger may not join the team until they have two negative coronavirus tests.
MORE: Terry Francona’s son rips Zach Plesac for posting anti-media rant
Plesac and Clevinger apologize in statements released by the team, but that has not stopped the criticism – from the media or his teammates.
“They got us wrong,” said pitcher Adam Plutko, one of the team’s representatives at the MLB Players’ Association. They lied to us. They sat here in front of your boys and said public things they did not follow through. ”
Bob Nightengale: Indian Zach Plesac-Mike Clevinger fiasco is a case study in COVID-19 carefree
However, Plesac stated that he would never do anything to endanger anyone, something he said the media did not claim.
“We’re clearly exposed when bad teammates, bad people and dragged through the mud,” he said, “so it’s hard to sit here and watch things fall apart and people who do not know the truth.”