Marmol Says Sign-Relaying Prompted Dugout Warning Before Uribe's Gesture
St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Wednesday that he had already warned the Milwaukee Brewers about relaying signs from their dugout before reliever Abner Uribe directed a series of obscene gestures toward the St. Louis dugout during Tuesday night's game. Uribe, a right-handed reliever, performed three WWE-style crotch chops toward the Cardinals' dugout after recording a strikeout to end the eighth inning. The display drew condemnation from Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who called the gesture "unacceptable."
Speaking to reporters before Wednesday's afternoon game between the two clubs, Marmol said he had gestured and mouthed a warning to the Brewers' dugout mid-game, pointing to his ribs to underscore his concern that visible sign-relaying could lead to a batter being hit by a pitch. "I looked over, and I said, 'Hey, you gotta do it, be smart, you're gonna get somebody hurt,'" Marmol said. "Like, 'What we trying to do here?' That was it." He added that an unnamed Brewers coach had been involved in a separate conversation about the sign-relaying issue before the game, and that the same coach spoke with him again after the final out. Marmol said he had not discussed the matter directly with Murphy. Uribe, speaking through an interpreter after Tuesday's game, said he interpreted Marmol's in-game gestures as instructions for Cardinals pitchers to intentionally hit Milwaukee outfielder Christian Yelich and catcher William Contreras.
Marmol declined to characterize the episode as extraordinary, describing similar dugout exchanges as routine across the league. "This is like an everyday occurrence," he said. "We felt like [the Brewers] were being pretty demonstrative about relaying signs from the dugout." Yelich, speaking in the Milwaukee clubhouse Wednesday, acknowledged the gesture was excessive. "Obviously, I don't think the strikeout celebration is something we need to be doing," Yelich said, while crediting Uribe's intentions. "He's a guy that always has his teammates' backs. I appreciate where he was coming from on it, but I think there's a different way to handle that situation, and he knows that." Yelich also indicated there had been broader friction during the series, saying "some stuff going on during the series that I don't really know why it was going on," without elaborating.
Milwaukee had won the first two games of the series entering Wednesday's matchup. Yelich said the Brewers intended to move past the incident without allowing it to affect their play. "We've all addressed it, and we'll move on and have it not become a big distraction," he said. Marmol similarly indicated he considered the matter largely resolved, though he noted that Uribe's public reaction had invited scrutiny that a quieter exchange would not have. Whether Major League Baseball's office would review the gesture or any related conduct was not addressed in the available reporting.
