MLB insider clears Blue Jays' Springer of accusatory comments during Ohtani's warmup

It was a classic case of miscommunication on the ball field on Wednesday afternoon. During the bottom of the first, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder/ DH George Springer was in the on-deck circle as LA Dodgers pitcher, Shohei Ohtani was warming up.

It appeared as if Springer was taking exception to Ohtani's warm up time, considering the two-way superstar isn't given a set time like every other pitcher in the league. That is because he is the exception to the rule and it's up to the umpires discretion as to how long Ohtani gets. Fair or not, that is the rule MLB has placed within the umpires hands and during the series finale on Wednesday it looked like the timing issue was upsetting Springer - but that wasn't the case according to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal.

Rosenthal clears the air about George Springer's reaction to Ohtani's warmup time

On the Foul Territory podcast, Rosenthal said Springer wasn't accusing Ohtani of taking too much time, in fact he was just trying to get some clarity on the situation. Rosenthal says, "I was told by two people directly involved that Springer was not complaining at all, he was merely asking for clarification that Ohtani indeed gets more time beyond the normal two minute break between innings. This was not a reprise of the World Series last year."

What Rosenthal is referring to is when Blue Jays manager John Schneider was irked several times throughout Game 7 about the allotted time that Shohei was being given. Schneider asked the umpiring staff multiple times how long were they going to give Ohtani. He was also seen pointing at his watch while looking exasperated.

Sure, Ohtani does deserve a bit of grace as his manager Dave Roberts has said in prior interviews, especially if Ohtani is stranded on base. But there should also be some more concrete rules in place. Before the introduction of the universal DH, pitchers in the National League had to come off the bases when stranded and go directly on the mound without getting any extra time - of course they also didn't have a pitch clock back then, so there was no strict timer for when those instances were brought up.

But on Wednesday, there wasn't any complaining from the Blue Jays side, this time around and they won't be seeing the Dodgers for the rest of the regular season, so this isn't an issue that is likely to revive itself later this summer, at least from the Toronto contingent. It will be interesting to watch if other teams start to chime in on the Ohtani warm up time as the season goes on.

We know for sure that Roberts won't be a fan of it, as he was the one who seemed to take the most exception to what he thought Springer was saying in the on-deck circle. Roberts was seen shaking his head as if he was completely annoyed by the situation. Even though that wasn't happened, you'd have to expect that as the two-time defending World Series champions, other teams are going to try to find any way to get an edge on you.