Zach Plesac feels he and Cleveland Indians teammate Mike Clevinger have been unfairly portrayed as "bad people" in the aftermath of the pitchers being quarantined for violating COVID-19 protocol last weekend in Chicago.

He acknowledged breaking team curfew Saturday when he and Clevinger left the team hotel, went out to dinner and socialized with Plesac's friends.

Plesac maintains that his actions weren't malicious and that he and Clevinger practiced social distancing when they were with a small group at dinner and afterward.

"The media is terrible, man," Plesac said in an Instragram video. "They do some evil things to create stories and make things sound better and make things sound worse."

Plesac said he and Clevinger were within CDC guidelines when they left the team hotel and were never with "more than eight people the entire night."

He feels he and Clevinger are being cast as "bad teammates, bad people and dragged across the mud."

Plesac said that he understands the risks with COVID-19 and that his brother has Type 1 diabetes and his mother is a nurse.

"It breaks my heart for people to think I'm a bad teammate or a bad person. But I wanted to share with you guys that moving forward, there's a selflessness lesson taught here, and at the end of the day, I want everybody to be healthy. I want to be a good teammate. I want to win baseball games, man. That's all I want to do."