Watch out, haters: MLB players will own you on social media

‘Tis the season to sit at home and troll pro baseball players on social media, apparently.

Maybe it’s because you just got a new phone, installed your favorite social media app and your immediate reaction is, “Great, now it’s time to mouth off to a pro athlete.” Or maybe your favorite way to bring balance to the pomp and circumstance of Christmas is some light trolling of a pro baseball player.

Here’s a suggestion: Maybe don’t.

There were two instances where overzealous fans earned fans clapbacks from baseball players — and both rounds went to the MLB dudes in this case.

First, there was San Francisco Giants closer Mark Melancon, whose first year in S.F. didn’t go as well as he and Giants fans hoped. He’s still able to kill the haters with kindness though:

Melacon is a somewhat easy target. He under-performed and he’d tell you as much. So taking a swipe at him isn’t exactly the most daring social media act a person someone can commit. Imagine being the person going after Kris Bryant, whose three years in the big leagues have included a Rookie of the Year award, MVP and helping the Chicago Cubs breaking their World Series curse.

You’d think like that earns a fella immunity from petty Instagram comments after he post a picture of himself on the golf course, but nope.

Not sure how a dude calling himself “BigHig44” has the gall to proclaim that Bryant is a “waste” — he hit .295 with 29 homers last year and 39 homers with a .292 average the year before. Only possible explanation is that BigHig44 is a St. Louis Cardinals fan.

Nonetheless, this should be enough for the social-media scallywags to take heed: Don’t just expect athletes to just put up with your chirping. It’s almost 2018. Clapbacks are bound to be coming.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz