Red Sox outfielder Tommy Pham has no regrets about how he handled the Joc Pederson slapping situation in May.
“If anything, he’s lucky I didn’t hurt his ass even worse,” Pham said recently while discussing the incident, per The Boston Globe.
On May 27, Pham, who was with the Reds at the time, approached Pederson and slapped the San Francisco Giants outfielder in the face prior to their first meeting of the season at Great American Ball Park. Pham was pulled from the lineup prior to the start of the game.
“Regarding the Joc situation, I don’t feel sorry for what I did,” Pham said. “There’s a certain level of respect that was crossed. Joc was disrespectful and I don’t condone, you know, the way he was talking to me in the group chat through the text. I don’t condone that.”
The slap heard around the MLB world was over an exchange between Pham and Pederson in a fantasy football group chat. Players from multiple teams were in the group chat.
Pham, who was shipped to Boston at the trade deadline, was suspended for three games by MLB following an investigation, causing him to miss the Reds-Giants series.
At the time, Pham told reporters that Pederson “said some s–t I don’t condone. I had to address it.” Pham also said he had “no regrets” over the situation.
Pederson, at the time, explained that the beef had started on a text chain last year, when he was accused of cheating in a fantasy football league among several MLB players.
Pham, who dropped out of the league, told The Athletic there was a $10,000 entry fee for the 12-team league — and placed some of the blame on Angels center fielder Mike Trout, who was the league’s commissioner.