Spring training has kicked off for MLB. The Red Sox have already played multiple spring training contests. In the game on Tuesday, Wilyer Abreu took a check swing, and his bat broke.

Now, Abreu is offering an explanation for why his bat broke, without ever making contact with the ball, per Scott Chiusano and Ian Browne of MLB.com.

“I don't know. That was kind of weird. It was the first time that happened to me. I don't think that’s happened too many [other] times, either, so it just was weird,” Abreu said. “In the at-bat before, when I hit the ground ball to shortstop, I felt something weird on the bat. I felt something with the contact. It didn’t feel the right way. And in the next at-bat, I just broke it.”

This leads to the question: if the bat felt weird, why didn't Abreu just switch pieces of lumber before his next at-bat?

“I tested it,” he said. “I tried to see if it was broken, but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel anything wrong with the bat. But in my mind, the sound was weird in the at-bat before, but I didn’t expect the bat would break like that.”

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Broken bats are not uncommon in baseball, either by getting jammed on a pitch, balls coming off the end of the barrel, or the occasional frustrated batter breaking it himself. Still, a bat rarely breaks without making contact with anything. Still, the clip of the phantom bat breaking is going viral.

“Yeah, I mean, that video went viral. So I got a lot of messages,” Abreu said.

Next time Abreu breaks his bat, surely he hopes it's for a hit, not a check-swing. That swing could come in the World Baseball Classic, as Abreu plays for Team Venezuela.

The WBC begins on March 5, and the Red Sox open their season on March 26 against the Cincinnati Reds.