Disgruntled former Mariner is at the center of MLB's stupidest scandal of 2025

It's often interesting when you get a chance to check in on former Seattle Mariners, especially one who now plays for their biggest divisional rival, the Houston Astros. We're talking about Taylor Trammell, who at one time was a highly-rated prospect who was traded to the M's in 2020 and went on to play in Seattle until he was designated for assignment ahead of the 2024 season.

We've actually already written about Trammell once this season, after he produced a three-hit, three-RBI game against the Mariners. He admitted he had a chip on the shoulder against the M's, which was inexplicable. They gave him every opportunity to succeed and ultimately he let himself down, as highlighted by a .168 batting average and .639 OPS in 116 games over three years.

Well, now we've got another excuse to write about Trammell, but this time it's got nothing to do with the Mariners. Instead, he's at the center of one of the strangest scandals of the 2025 season, involving the Astros and another one of his former teams, the New York Yankees.

Trammell had just hit a double in the ninth inning for the Astros against the Yankees on Thursday night, bringing the tying run to the plate with no outs. It was at this moment Yankees manager Aaron Boone came onto the field and asked the umpire's to check the outfielder's bat.

Now, it doesn't take much for people to get on board with the Astros potentially cheating, after the uproar and fallout surrounding their previous sign-stealing scandal. However, on this occasion you have to wonder if it's much ado about nothing.

Taylor Trammell calls the situation "actually ridiculous"

After much debate and scrutiny, the umpires confiscated the bat and passed it to an authenticator for it to be sent to the league office to be reviewed. Trammel was understandably perplexed by the whole situation and called the confiscation ridiculous.

Following the 8-4 win for the Yankees, Boone spoke to the media and said they had noticed Trammell's bat earlier in the series and thought it might be illegal. As per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, he said:

"The discoloration’s on the label. I don’t know if it was just natural or if it was. ... I don’t know, and I don’t want to accuse Taylor. I’m not saying anything untoward or whatever. We noticed it, though, on video while we were here, and we actually mentioned it to the league, and they said, ‘No, that looks like an illegal bat.’ So that was it."

Aaron Boone to reporters

Trammell explained that he was told at the time that the bat was shaved down too much, which perplexed him even more as he doesn't even know how to do this. Going into more detail about his bat, he said:

"I've had that bat since I've been here. I've had it for a long time. I usually take BP with it. I use it in games, I use it in [Triple-A Sugar Land], use it every time I need. The only thing [is] I just don't have a gloss finish on my bat. It's matte. Paint wears down. That's what happened."

Taylor Trammell to reporters

If the Yankees wanted the bat checked for cork, that would make some sense. And with Trammell having played for them last season, they would have intel on whether he was up to no good. However, the reality in this case is that Boone's explanation is bordering on — if not outright — asinine.

Certainly the timing of Boone's request to the umpires was interesting, with Trammell noting that the Yankees had no issue with the bat when he struck out earlier in the game. In addition, nothing was mentioned during the previous three-game series between the two teams a month earlier in August.

Yankees have a history of this kind of gamesmanship

Fortunately common sense has prevalied, with Sean Leahy of Yahoo Sports reporting that Trammell will not face any discipline. However, this doesn't make what the Yankees did right, with the 27-year-old not likely to even get his confiscated bat back.

Not that this is the first time the Yankees can be accused of being the bat police, with a famous incident in 1983 involving George Brett, who hit a home run in the ninth to give the Kansas City Royals a 5-4 lead. The Yankees claimed Brett's bat was covered in too much pine tar and he was ruled to be in violation, called out as a result and the Royals lost.

However, the Royals protested the ruling, which was then overturned and the game was resumed following Brett's homer. The Yankees subsequently went on to lose, and you better believe there weren't many people feeling particularly sorry for them.

Heck, there was even an occasion back in 2007 when the Yankees also decided to be the uniform police during a game against their hated rivals the Boston Red Sox. Manager Terry Francona became upset when he was summoned up the dugout tunnel and asked to show compliance with baseball's dress code, with the league acknowledging afterwards the in-game uniform check was poorly timed.

Overall, we can appreciate that gamesmanship is part and partial of baseball, and indeed professional sports in general. However, the Trammell bat incident was pure bush league stuff by the Yankees.