After a strong start in which he helped lead the Indians to a win against the White Sox on Saturday afternoon, Plesac went out to dinner with friends in Chicago that evening, he said in a video posted to Instagram. The same group – which wasn’t bigger than eight at any point – then returned to one of his friend’s places, where they opened packs of baseball cards and were "throwing bets down, having a good time hanging out," Plesac said.
Plesac acknowledged that he broke the 10 p.m. curfew and was reported to the team by an MLB security official. He had no problem with Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti telling him to quarantine for three days and to head back to Cleveland on Sunday in a private car.
"It was a great decision on his part, so I did my time," Plesac said.
What the 25-year-old Plesac was upset about was how the media portrayed him to be "evil" with his actions.
"The media is really terrible, man," Plesac said. "The media is terrible. They do some evil things to create stories and make things sound better, to make things sound worse. Truthfully, I’m disgusted the way the media has handled this whole situation surrounding our team.”
Plesac explained his night and experience of the last few days in further detail. Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger also was placed on the restricted list after going out and violating the rules as well.
"Ten people or less is considered a very safe gathering, especially if you’re six feet apart," Plesac said. "And that entire night at dinner and hanging out at my buddy’s place after, we were not with more than eight people the entire night. So the media is portraying me and my best friend and teammate to be malicious with our actions when we were really – not justifying what we did, because we left the hotel and according to new rules, we weren’t supposed to leave – but according to the CDC and guidelines with corona, we were practicing safe practices in a small group with people who we know had been tested and came back to our curfew late, which was 10 p.m.
"Clearly, we’ve been exposed as being bad teammates, bad people and dragged across the mud, you know? So it’s hard to sit here and watch how things shuffle out, people not knowing the truth. I wanted to kind of voice my opinion. I understand that there are risks people are taking to play this game, and the last thing I would want to do is put anybody at risk – the last thing I’d want to do. My little brother has type-1 diabetes, my mom’s a nurse – I understand the significance of this illness and this disease. I know how important it is that we must follow certain procedures and guidelines to ensure safety for the entirety of a group.
"It breaks my heart for people to think I’m a bad teammate or a bad person. But I wanted to share with you guys that moving forward, there’s a selflessness lesson taught here. At the end of the day, I want everybody to be healthy. I want to be a good teammate. I want to win baseball games, man. That’s all I want to do. Whatever it takes for me to get back on that diamond and start shoving it up people, trust me, I’ll be ready when they need me."
Plesac is off to a strong start on the mound, posting a 1.29 ERA and 0.67 WHIP in three starts.