Former MLB Player Slammed for Subtweet Criticizing Player for Having Day Off

Former MLB pitcher Kyle Farnsworth received widespread condemnation for a Monday tweet that criticized a player for sitting out a game because of "general soreness."

Though Farnsworth didn't mention him by name, the message was largely perceived to be about Baltimore Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini, who is playing his first season since successfully fighting stage 3 colon cancer.

However, after a large social media backlash, Farnsworth posted Tuesday on Twitter that his original message was not about Mancini.

Farnsworth, who played for nine different teams from 1999 to 2014, wrote the following on Monday: "So I just saw that a MLB player didn't play today because of general soreness. Are you kidding me. It's September. Everyone is sore. If you can't play through soreness, you shouldn't be playing the sport. SMH!"

The former relief pitcher was quickly called out and roundly criticized, as well as mocked, for the tweet that many felt was about Mancini.

Mancini missed Monday's Labor Day game against the Kansas City Royals, due to what Orioles manager Brandon Hyde cited as "general soreness."

The 29-year-old Mancini is hitting .262 with 21 home runs and 66 RBI this season. He's played in 128 games.

Marcus Stroman, a starting pitcher for the New York Mets, defended Mancini on Twitter. Along with retweeting other people's critiques of Farnsworth, Stroman wrote: "My man @TreyMancini is a living legend. A true role model to the youth who has battled an incredible amount of adversity. Past players with poo-poo careers/opinions need to keep it down. He's a cancer survivor who beat the odds and is a blessing to society. Keep inspiring Trey!"

Even some people who cover baseball professionally called out Farnsworth, including Fox Sports MLB analyst Ben Verlander.

Others took Farnsworth to task for questioning the conditioning of an everyday position player, never mind one that battled cancer.

Since he was a relief pitcher during his career, Farnsworth was not required to play nine innings a game over the course of a 162-game season. As one commenter said, "Hey Kyle, quick question: if soreness is so easy to play through why did you never pitch 162 games in a season? Thanks!"

An incident referenced by many commenters was when Farnsworth allegedly kicked an electric fan in a dugout after giving up six runs during a 2004 outing as a member of the Chicago Cubs. Farnsworth was subsequently placed on the injured list with a bruised and sprained knee.

At least a couple of people gave Farnsworth the benefit of the doubt that maybe he forgot Mancini battled cancer.

However, several people wondered why Farnsworth hadn't deleted the comment, if he was indeed referencing Mancini and forgot about his cancer battle.

One commenter wrote: "A perfect time to delete this tweet was the moment you found out you're trying to dunk on a guy who beat cancer for sitting out one damn game."

On Tuesday, Farnsworth returned to Twitter. He claimed he was not speaking of Mancini in his Monday tweet, but rather players in general who sit out for being sore.

"Let me clarify a tweet I posted yesterday. It was not directed toward Trey. His name was not mentioned in it," he wrote. "Cancer was not mentioned in it. It was directed to towards players who can't play through soreness. There may be a fan that comes to see you play that day. And you arent [sic]."