“It is a star-studded rivalry” - MLB analyst highlights Jurickson Profar and Will Smith’s bench-clearing conflict

A bench-clearing brawl erupted between Dodgers catcher Will Smith and Padres slugger Jurickson Profar on Saturday night. In their second-season series, the Padres beat the Dodgers 2-1 as some of the frustration started to build up in the fifth inning.

It all started when Profar said something to Smith, which wasn't taken kindly by the catcher. Both soon started talking trash as benches cleared up from both dugouts. After the game, Will Smith even called Profar "Mr. Irrelevant."

Recently, MLB analysts Chris Rose and Trevor Plouffe weighed in on the situation on their podcast. Rose took sides with 'Team Profar."

"He's kind of irrelevant. Well, Sunday, Mr. Irrelevant ended up hitting a bases clearing double in the seventh. That was the difference in the Padres win. Yeah, I'm Team Profar on this one. I just don't like things when they get personal from that standpoint," Rose said.

"I like rivalries. If this is indeed a rivalry, I know that Dodger fans will say it's not. Padre fans will probably say it is. I just think for one major leaguer to to another major leaguer, you're irrelevant. I think it's kind of shi**y."

Plouffe was also not impressed with Smith calling a veteran like Jurickson Profar "irrelevant."

"I mean, this guy's got much more time than Will Smith. You know, you can say what you want about what type of players they are and whatever. But to say a guy with 10 years in the league is irrelevant. That doesn't make any sense to me, especially nowadays. Getting 10 years is very, very tough. And I will say this," Plouffe said.

"I said this. I'm talking baseball earlier. Whether Dodgers fans want to admit it or not, this is a rivalry. It is a star studded rivalry."

---

Jurickson Profar says the incident was "just the heat of the moment"

The incident between Jurickson Profar and Will Smith took center stage in the heightened Dodgers-Padres rivalry. Both teams have been at each other's necks in the last few years.

Following Saturday's incident, he expressed his side of things and shrugged off the incident to catch the attention of the media.

“It was just the heat of the moment,” Profar said. “I wasn’t trying to get the team energized or anything like that. We don’t need that. We have a good team. We don’t need any of that.”

Well, Jurickson Profar may say it was just the heat of the moment; the incident ignited the heated rivalry to follow throughout the season.