Danny Knobler of ESPN Los Angeles reports that Dodgers prospect Alex Guerrero could miss five weeks following yesterday’s dugout altercation in which Triple-A teammate Miguel Olivo bit off part of his ear.
According to Knobler for now at least Guerrero has chosen not to file formal charges against Olivo, but he’s currently hospitalized and needs plastic surgery. And how exactly did an argument that led to someone’s ear being bitten off by a teammate begin?
Well, agent Scott Boras told the Los Angeles Times that “Olivo became steamed after his team allowed a stolen base in the seventh inning” and “blamed Guerrero for failing to tag the baserunner in time.”
So, you know, a perfectly reasonable justification for biting off someone’s ear.
Olivo apparently punched Guerrero in the dugout and then, according to the newspaper, “when players pulled off Olivo, he had a piece of Guerrero’s ear in his mouth.” Yeesh.
Guerrero signed a $28 million deal with the Dodgers this offseason after defecting from Cuba and is hitting .376 with 10 homers and a 1.152 OPS in 33 games at Triple-A, so if not for having an ear-biting maniac as a teammate he likely would have been in line for a call-up soon.
