HOUSTON — Major League Baseball made Astros catcher Martin Maldonado stop using a bat it deemed illegal after World Series Game 1, a league official said Saturday.
Maldonado was using a specific type of maple bat given to him by Albert Pujols, his teammate with the Angels in 2017 and 2018. Use of the bat had been grandfathered in, but only for players who were in the majors prior to 2011, the MLB official said. Maldonado made his MLB debut in 2011. A player may use a maple bat, but it has to meet MLB standards for slope of grain, among other items, the official said.
Maldonado said he received a shipment of the bats from Pujols prior to the World Series opener Friday and Game 1 was the only time he had used that model during the postseason. He said he used the model a few times when he and Pujols were teammates. Pujols was allowed to keep using the model because his MLB career began in 2001.
The league deemed that Maldonado gained no competitive advantage from using the bat (though he did have an RBI in Game 1). MLB considers that brand a riskier bat, however, because it has a greater chance of splintering into multiple pieces, and it was banned for safety reasons, the league official said.
Maldonado said he was alerted before Game 2 by MLB officials that the bat was illegal. He used a different bat Saturday night, the league official said.