Jorge López, Jhoan Durán, and the Danger of Being Lost in Translation

[Cody Christie]

Major League Baseball is an international game, played in a country where English is the primary language. For many players, this environment can result in parts of interviews being lost in translation. Former Twins pitcher Jorge López made headlines this week, and other players have recently dealt with similar issues.

Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

Jorge López will be remembered in Twins circles because of the lopsided trade that brought him to the organization. The Twins sent four prospects, including Yennier Canó and Cade Povich, to Baltimore, and López lasted less than a year in the organization. In parts of two seasons, he posted a 4.81 ERA (86 ERA+) with a 1.41 WHIP, while being worth -0.2 WAR. Things couldn’t have gone much worse in Minnesota, but the end of his tenure with the Mets has become even more memorable--for all the wrong reasons. 

On Wednesday, López pitched for the Mets in their 10-3 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was ejected by third-base umpire Ramon De Jesús, and threw his glove into the stands on his way off the field. Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza referred to the glove toss as “unacceptable.” Mendoza and David Stearns, the Mets' president of baseball operations, spoke with López after the game and decided to designate him for assignment. 

Drama also followed López into his postgame interview, during which emotions were still high from the on-field incident and his meeting with team officials. One of the quotes garnering the most attention was when López appeared to say the Mets were “the worst team in, probably in the whole f------ MLB.” Asked to clarify whether he was saying he was on the worst team, he said, "Yeah, probably, it look like."

However, the words could be clearer, as evident in the video below. English is not his first language, so there may have been a misinterpretation. Some interpreted it as López actually saying, “I think I been looking (like) the worst teammate probably in the whole f—ing MLB.” It’s also easy to notice that he is doing the entire interview without help from the Mets' communication department. López might have made this choice, but having an interpreter there can ease some of the burden for players who do not have English as their first language. 

The Twins may have had a similar situation recently, without the big-market drama associated with López and the Mets. Minnesota was on a seven-game losing streak, and frustrations started mounting for the players and manager. Some quotes came out after a frustrating loss that might have been tied to a translation error for someone who is not a native English speaker. 

The Twins lost versus Cleveland on a walk-off home run, a tough pill to swallow, especially with the team’s star closer on the mound. Jhoan Durán threw a first-pitch curveball to Will Brennan, but stated after the game that he disagreed with that call.

"It's not my decision," Durán told reporters. "I thought that [Brennan] wasn't good with fastballs. I'm an employee here, so whatever I need to throw, I need to throw it."

Some Twins fans were upset with Durán’s comments, because it felt like he was not taking full responsibility or was throwing the coaches and other players under the bus. Durán has been attempting to do more frequent interviews in English, but there can still be errors with phrases or finding the appropriate words. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was asked about Durán’s comments before the next game.

"I think he's just frustrated and was looking for a way to vent," Baldelli said, "I thought it was unusual. I wasn't expecting it. I like to handle our stuff here with a conversation in the clubhouse."

Sometimes, it is abundantly clear what a player means by a specific quote. However, there are instances, like López and Durán, where quotes might not match what the player was genuinely trying to say. MLB continues to grow and become more international, so it is vital to support players so their quotes aren't skewed to grab headlines. After a spate of issues like these littered over the first decade of the 21st century, MLB took steps about 10 years ago to make interpreters available to more players, on a more robust basis. Whatever was meant and whatever was actually relayed in each of these cases, we can be grateful for that progress, but perhaps even more support and care is necessary, on all sides of such situations.

Should teams do a better job of ensuring players are supported during postgame interviews? What’s the best approach for situations like this in the future? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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[JD-TWINS]

Jorge has been emotionally uneven since he came into my vision in summer of ‘22. I hope he can get stabilized and back into the game at some point in the near future……..he seems to need some help.

[Schmoeman5]

I don't believe for 1 second that Duran or Lopez comments got lost in translation. They're human. Guys get frustrated and instead of pausing and giving the standard baseball cliches, their emotions get the better of them and they say things they probably regret after the fact. It doesn't make them bad guys. Lopez has been dealing with issues for a couple years now. Now he's probably done with baseball. 

[bean5302]

I tend to agree with Schmoeman5, but I'll take it a step further. Jorge Lopez has been living in and playing baseball in the continental United States for 14 years. His entire adult life. Even if he did mess it up because he's not highly fluent in English, I don't have a ton of sympathy for him.

[Doctor Gast]

It's not easy to express yourself in a 2nd language. I give Jorge Lopez & Duran credit for trying & we should be understanding when they don't come across exactly in the way they intended by mispronouncing or wrong sentence structure, Lopez is an emotional player that can work for him but most of the time against him. He was frustrated against the umpire & himself not the team so what he said got misconstrued & out of context, In his need to vent he make the mistake of speaking w/o an interpreter. 

[USAFChief]

One would think if you're going to make the claim Lopez didn't actually SAY what he said, you should include a clip of him saying it.

[tony&rodney]

Unless you have lived in a country where you did not speak the language and still attempted some communication it is likely best to just leave your thoughts on this controversy to the side. Languages, phrasing, nuances, and the sort can be very difficult to ordinary people, much less to those who don't easily pick up a foreign language.

[tony&rodney]

3 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I tend to agree with Schmoeman5, but I'll take it a step further. Jorge Lopez has been living in and playing baseball in the continental United States for 14 years. His entire adult life. Even if he did mess it up because he's not highly fluent in English, I don't have a ton of sympathy for him.

I don't really either but then there is this , how many languages do you speak?

[nicksaviking]

Everyone needs to cut Lopez a break.

He hasn't played for the A's, Pirates, Rockies or White Sox yet. Based off of his experiences, yeah, the Mets are totally the biggest mess in the whole MLB. 

[DocBauer]

I'm sorry, but any translation issues aside, I'm trying to understand any sort of correlation between Lopez...a talented but troubled human being due to family matters...and Duran who had a bad game.

I don't see any corelation between these two individuals. 

ONE has/is having ongoing personal, human, family issues and his career is going off the rails. Unfortunately. 

The OTHER is one of the top closers in all of MLB who is embraced by his teammates, and Fandom, STILL performing, even with a couple bad outcomes, which happen. The ONLY issue I can see with Duran is a pitch he threw got tattooed for a HR. Was that a bad call? Did he just throw a bad pitch? Crazy idea. Sometimes a called pitch, or a bad pitch, gets hammered.

When a Twins batter hits a big XB hit or HR we celebrate. When it happens to Duran...and he regrets the pitch thrown...suddenly there's a controvery? 

He's STILL doing his job. He's healthy again. His mechanics are slightly out of whack, he's been pitching more out of a slide step, and he's STILL hit 101 and 102 as of late.

But ONE bad pitch and a comment he supposedly didn't think that was the pitch he wanted to throw is some sort of controversy? Please!

This is, sorry to say, an OP about nothing but a deadline to post SOMETHING. 

[bighat]

I lived in Guatemala for 6 years, and had to communicate in a foreign language as part of my daily life. My Spanish was OK when I arrived, and was much better by the time I left - but even then I'd make mistakes every day. Sometimes they were harmless, but there were plenty of things I said that came across as offensive, distasteful, and even hurtful. And this was all without bright lights, cameras, and a reporter asking me questions. I'm certain that many players really only catch 1 or 2 words from reporters and then just spout a basic canned response, sometimes without realizing the context of the question. I'm sure that's how I would have handled it. 

I really do think all MLB reporters need to be much better at handling how to speak to players who aren't completely fluent in English. Here's an idea: have them all spend a week at my mother-in-law's house in Guatemala City with no English-speakers in sight. I can assure you that once they return, they will be much more empathetic and understanding when it comes to communicating with Latin-born players. 

[GV14218]

Having lived and worked abroad for many years, and speaking my second language (German) at work every day, it still sometimes happened that I got caught off guard by a question or struggled for the exact word or phrase in a stressful moment. So yes, absolutely: teams need to do a better job of ensuring players - their employees - are supported during postgame interviews. 

[Linus]

I don’t think it was a language barrier issue. We’ve all said things we wish we could take back. Neither situation is that big of a deal. López seems like he is in a bad place and I wish him the best. 

[David Maro]

He needs to step away for the rest of the year. His problems have gone from bad to worse. After he left the Twins which he requested,he had issues in Miami as well. He even went back to Baltimore where he was before being traded to the Twins. I don't think the language thing has anything to do with what is happening. It may help if MLB steps in and suspends him. The reason being is that there are team's probably looking at signing him. Like the saying goes you can never have too much pitching.