A group of Major League Baseball players have a big fantasy football problem, which now involves one of baseball's most recognizable stars. Tommy Pham of the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson are feuding over their fantasy football league so seriously that Pham recently slapped Pederson during a batting practice.
The incident resulted in a three-game suspension for Pham. He now claims the circumstances surrounding the incident go all the way up to one of the biggest stars in all of baseball: Mike Trout.
Speaking with the media after returning from his suspension, Pham spoke at length about his side of the slap saga. He claimed that the commissioner of the fantasy football league in question -- Trout -- could have put a stop to the dispute that led to the slap, had he enforced the league's rules.
"Trout did a terrible job, man," Pham said in a report by The Athletic. Pham continued by saying the following:
"Trout's the worst commissioner in fantasy sports. Because he allowed a lot of s--t to go on and he could've solved it all. Nobody wanted to be commissioner, I didn't want to be the f---ing commissioner. I've got other s--t to do. He didn't want to do it; we put it on him. It was kind of our fault too, because we made him commissioner."
The dispute in the fantasy football league, which had a $10,000 buy-in for participants, began when Pederson placed a player listed as out on injured reserve so that he could pick up an additional player. Pham accused Pederson of cheating, to which Pederson claimed that Pham had employed the exact same tactic with a player on his own team.
Pham ultimately ended up dropping out of the league despite the hit to his wallet, and he also took exception to jokes that Pederson had made in a group text at the expense of his former team, the San Diego Padres.
"I looked at it like he was f---ing with my money along with the disrespect," Pham said of Pederson.
According to Andy McCullough of The Athletic, Trout later declined to comment on whether or not Pederson had violated the rules of the league. He also added that he was unsure whether or not he would return as commissioner for the upcoming season: "Every commissioner I know gets booed," he said.
Pham had been eligible to play on Tuesday at the end of his suspension, but was held out by the Reds as a precautionary measure due to discomfort in his left calf. The Reds beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1.
