Darvish issued a statement Friday night forgiving Gurriel and asking people to learn from the incident.

Manfred then met with Gurriel, who is 33, on Saturday and said the player was contrite. Still, Manfred said Major League Baseball needed to act and send a message.

“Notwithstanding Mr. Gurriel’s remorse, there needs to be disciplinary consequences to make clear that Major League Baseball is an institution that will not tolerate behavior of this type,” he said.

Manfred gave four reasons for postponing the suspension until next season. First, he did not want to penalize the other members of the Astros at such a critical moment in the season. He also said that Gurriel’s statement of contrition was a factor and that he wanted Gurriel to feel the financial impact of the penalty, which would not have happened in the World Series because of the manner in which players receive their salaries.

Finally, Manfred said he wanted to afford Gurriel the right to the usual appeal process, even though the players’ union announced Saturday that Gurriel would not appeal.

Actually, the appeal issue was a somewhat complicated one. In the regular season, a player who appeals a suspension can continue to play until the appeal process is completed.