Watch: Top Guardians prospect shoves ump, ignites brawl

Columbus Clippers right fielder George Valera Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

Watch: Top Guardians prospect shoves umpire, ignites brawl in minor league game

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 7/7/23

Chaos unfolded during the third inning of Thursday's Triple-A game between the Columbus Clippers and Nashville Sounds.

During that inning, Columbus' George Valera, one of the top prospects in the Cleveland Guardians organization, helped ignite a major bench-clearing brawl that began with him shoving the home plate umpire.

During his at-bat, Valera started to exchange words with Nashville catcher Alex Jackson.

The confrontation continued with Valera then shoving the home plate umpire out of the way so he could continue to get at Jackson.

Here is the entire George Valera incident from tonight in the Clippers game vs the Sounds. Valera likely looking at a suspension. pic.twitter.com/xRWseGUFMM
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) July 7, 2023

Valera is not only one of the Guardians' top prospects, but he is regarded by pretty much every scouting publication (including Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com) as a top-100 prospect in all of baseball. There was a belief he could even be called up to the majors at some point this season.

In the meantime, he might have to deal with some discipline in the minor leagues for making contact with an umpire and helping ignite a bench-clearing brawl.

Both Valera and Jackson were ejected from Thursday's game.

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