Yohendrick Pinango has made himself a big talking point for the Blue Jays since being called up from the minors earlier this season.
But while his play in the field and at the plate has drawn a lot of attention, so has his very noticeable tattoo: Big red lips on the left side of his neck.
During Monday night’s game against the Yankees in New York, the hometown commentary team — featuring former Blue Jays pitcher David Cone, Yanks great Paul O’Neill and play-by-play man Michael Kay — took notice of the ink during an at-bat in the fifth inning.
What did the commentary team say?
“Has he got lips on his neck? Is that what it is?” Cone asked during the YES network broadcast.
“I was gonna say, either mom gave him a big kiss, or he’s got a tattoo,” O’Neill replied.
“That’s pretty good, I like that. I want one. I want to get one of those,” Cone responded, before quipping that he “wouldn’t put it on my neck.”
The comment elicited a laugh from O’Neill and a brief pause from the men in the booth as minds wandered to seemingly inappropriate places.
“Oh, come on,” Cone responded.
“Sometimes silence is my best option …” Kay chimed in to break up the awkward situation.
“The booth goes silent on you, you know it,” Cone said.
O’Neill then put an end to the awkward exchange, joking that he had “hit the mute point, Conie, don’t worry, I don’t even know what you said.
“It went right by me.”
Why does Pinango have the lips tattoo?
As for why Pinango got the tattoo, the reason turns out to be incredibly simple.
“When you’re young, you do things,” Pinango said during an interview with Shi Davidi. “I liked it, so I did it.”
How good has Pinango been playing?
During his two stints with the Jays so far this season, Pinango has been a revelation.
Despite batting .423 through 10 games in his first time up in the Majors, Pinango was sent back to triple-A when Addison Barger was activated from the IL. However, his trip to the farm didn’t last long as he was back with the big club just a couple of days later when Nathan Lukes was injured.
Through Tuesday night’s game, Pinango has posted a slash line of .327/.375/.423 with one home run and eight RBIs.