Jeb out of Marlins race, but Jeter could stay in

WITH SUCH compelling evidence to consider, I thought for sure Major League Baseball would understand that was not the typical eye-for-an-eye retaliation scenario. Meaning the punishment should reflect the idiocy of the act.

That is, Hunter Strickland, the idiot, should take the brunt of it.

Indeed, if ever a hitter was justified for charging the mound, it was Bryce Harper on Monday, after Strickland acted on a personal vendetta that was three years in the making.

My feeling was the suspensions should have come down like this: two games for Harper, 10 for Strickland.

Instead, MLB announced Tuesday evening that Harper is suspended for four games, Strickland for six.

Sorry, that decision just doesn’t do. Obviously MLB couldn’t let Harper go unpunished, particularly for firing his helmet, no matter if it slipped out of his hand and became fodder for a million joking references to 50 Cent’s famously wayward ceremonial toss at Citi Field.

And I recognize that MLB feels it needs to have a certain standard of punishment to serve as a deterrent for hitters charging the mound. As it is, the league has cut down on such incidents dramatically from years ago by stiffening the penalties.

OK, fine, but each case should be examined as a separate entity. And as such the real issue here was that whatever suspension Harper received should have been a slap on the wrist compared to that of Strickland.

Instead, the Giants pitcher got two more games. And considering that relievers rarely work more than three or four out of every six games, and don’t have nearly the impact on a game as an everyday player, you can make the case that Strickland received less punishment. How does that make sense? If Strickland had plunked the Nationals’ star for reasons other than his own anger over giving up two home runs to him in the 2014 NLDS, that would justify such equal treatment.

And I do think there will always be a place in baseball for a pitcher throwing a purpose pitch in retaliation on behalf of a teammate. I always go back to the way the Mets let Chase Utley get away with barreling into Ruben Tejada, not in the 2015 playoffs but way back in 2010, when Jerry Manuel was managing.

It said a lot about the Mets’ losing mentality at the time that nobody was willing to make Utley pay at the time for a dirty slide, or even call him out on it verbally.

Like it or not, retaliation is called for at times in the interest of building trust among teammates, and in recent years the likes of Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard have made a point of sticking up for their fellow Mets in such situations.

In other words, I do believe in players policing their own game, at least to some extent.

Yes, it can be dangerous, however, and that’s where MLB needs to bring the hammer. Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes should have been suspended for more than four games for throwing behind Manny Machado’s head earlier this season, because there can be zero tolerance for head-hunting of any kind.

But as out-of-control as that situation became between the Orioles and Red Sox, at least it was teamrelated, going back to the Sox retaliating for Machado injuring Dustin Pedroia with a late slide. This was different, obviously. OK, at least Strickland hit Harper in the hip area, which would be considered the right way to throw such a pitch if there had been any cause for it.

But this was all about Strickland settling a score, a notion that seemed absolutely preposterous considering how long ago Harper hit those two home runs against him in the 2014 NLDS. Does the Nationals’ brash superstar have a way of agitating opponents? Sure he does. Was he barking at Strickland a bit from the dugout after the second home run? The video that everyone has seen by now shows it.

But Strickland brought some of that on himself, staring Harper down as he rounded the bases on each of the home runs.

In any case, as Harper pointed out afterward, the Giants went on to win the World Series that year, and that alone should have been enough for Strickland to get over his anger.

The point is, this was as selfish as a player could act, and, whatever theory you want to believe as to why Buster Posey didn’t intervene after the pitch, his reaction amounted to disapproval.

All of which begged for MLB to send a strong message that Strickland deserved to pay heavily for essentially inciting a riot — also that Harper’s reaction was at least understandable, if not condoned. nstead, MLB basically treated this incident as if there were cause for some sort of retaliation, and I’m rather stunned because Joe Torre, the point man on these calls, knows the difference.

I didn’t expect him to whiff on this one.

IFIRST, he lost out to Donald Trump to become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, and now it appears former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has dropped out of the race to buy the Miami Marlins.

According to an Associated Press report published Tuesday, Bush no longer has interest in trying to become owner of the South Florida baseball club. The report cited a “person close to the negotiations” saying Bush has “ended his pursuit of the team.” Bush was paired with Derek Jeter in a group that has bid for the Marlins, and the AP report said Jeter could still pursue an ownership stake “with other investors.” The other main group interested in buying the team from current owner Jeffrey Loria is led by Tagg Romney, the son of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Tagg Romney’s group, which appears to be a frontrunner now, includes Hall of Fame lefty Tom Glavine and former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart.

Earlier this month at the Major League Baseball owners’ meetings in Manhattan, commissioner Rob Manfred said “there are two bidders, at least” vying for ownership of the Marlins and that bidders were “relatively in the same place in terms of price.” But the dynamics appear to have changed. Last week, SportsBusiness Journal’s Daniel Kaplan tweeted that the Romney group had recently reached out to Jeter to try and persuade him to “dump” Bush.

Baseball insiders told the Daily News last week that Romney’s group has become frustrated with the process to the point where it is considering a drop-dead, takeit-or-leave-it offer and a finite window for the offer to be considered. Loria, who bought the team in 2002 for $158 million, is reportedly seeking between $1.1 and $1.3 billion for the club.