Things have not gone well for Jesus Montero since the Mariners acquired him from the Yankees in a trade for pitcher Michael Pineda before the 2012 season. Once considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball, the catcher/DH struggled in his first taste of full-time play in the Majors that year, then missed time due to a knee injury and a suspension for involvement in the Biogenesis scandal in 2013.

This season, he disappointed his club by arriving to Spring Training out of shape, prompting Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik to admit he had “zero expectations” for Montero. The 24-year-old opened the season in Class AAA and has seen only sparing time on the big-league roster.

Now Montero is rehabbing a strained oblique muscle with the team’s Class A team in Everett, and mutual frustration with his career apparently bubbled over in a bizarre confrontation on Thursday. From MiLB.com:

Montero was coaching first base, and at the end of an inning, the unidentified cross-checker yelled at him to hustle off the field, according to Boise official scorer Liza Safford. Montero then headed to the AquaSox dugout on the third-base side.

According to a game offical, the cross-checker then ordered an ice cream sandwich and had it sent to Montero in the dugout, escalating the confrontation further. The official said Montero — who arrived at Mariners Spring Training 40 pounds overweight this season — approached the stands with a bat while screaming profanities and threw the sandwich at the cross-checker. Montero had to be pulled back from the stands by Everett pitching coach Nasusel Cabrera, Safford said.

There’s a lot here. First off, that’s a huge waste of an ice cream sandwich. Ice cream sandwiches are delicious, and low-level minor leaguers are wildly underpaid. Montero was right to be angry after the scout mocked him, but there’s no doubt someone on the Everett Aqua Sox’ bench would have loved to enjoy a free ice cream sandwich.

In all seriousness, it’s a total jerk move on the part of the scout. Even if Montero’s still out of shape, it’s just hugely unprofessional to taunt an overweight co-worker with delicious ice cream sandwiches. Think about how that would go over in any other workplace.

Certainly Montero could have handled it better. And yes, part of being a Major Leaguer is learning to shoulder insults far worse than that one. But it’s hard to blame the guy for getting upset at such aggressive derision from an internal source.

Zduriencik told the Seattle Times that the club was aware of the incident, but did not comment further.

Montero’s no longer considered a can’t-miss offensive force, but he’s still only 24 and has a history of mashing in the minors. The Mariners, meanwhile, have succeeded in 2014 despite the lowest team OPS in the American League and a putrid .552 mark from their designated hitters. Montero might not be an obvious long-term solution to their offensive woes, but he’s still not the type of guy team employees should be going out of their way to alienate.