Twins Cut 2024 Draft Pick After He Allegedly Tipped Pitches to Opposing Hitters in Decisive Game
The Free Friday Post
Hi friends-
We begin today with a truly crazy story from our friends Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel at ESPN.
According to Passan and McDaniel, the Twins cut one of their recent picks from this summer’s MLB Draft, catcher Derek Bender, after he told opposing hitters what pitches they were about to see during a game that eliminated his team from postseason contention:
Bender, a sixth-round draft pick out of Coastal Carolina in July, was playing for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, the Twins' Single-A affiliate. In the second game of a Sept. 6 doubleheader, Bender told multiple hitters for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a Detroit farm team, the specific pitches being thrown by starter Ross Dunn, sources said.
Lakeland scored four runs in the second inning and won the game 6-0 to clinch the Florida State League West division and eliminate the Mighty Mussels from playoff contention after Fort Myers had held a six-game lead three weeks earlier.
Fort Myers coaches were notified by Lakeland coaches about Bender's pitch tipping after the game, sources said. Bender's willingness to tip pitches surprised Lakeland players, and there were no indications of wrongdoing from the Flying Tigers, sources said.
When I first saw this headline I thought for sure that Bender’s actions were another casualty of MLB's growing problems with players betting on games. It’s probably not great for American sports culture right now that I assumed someone had wagered a large amount of money on a Single-A baseball game and co-opted a kid three months out of college to fix the outcome.
It turns out Bender was just quiet quitting.
Bender had told teammates he wanted the season to be over, according to sources.
The history of baseball is long, so it’s possible another catcher not captured by bookies has done this because he just wanted to go home. But I can’t remember a time a player at any level cheated so egregiously to help another team win that the coaches of the benefitting team ratted him out after the game.
The Twins selected Bender with the 188th pick earlier this summer, and paid him a signing bonus of $297,500. Sources told Passan and McDaniel that Bender will get to keep that money. He will probably need it while he regroups and tries to figure out a different career path.
I had never heard of Bender before yesterday, but he is not the first athlete to go pro in a sport he apparently does not enjoy. Or maybe he was homesick or injured? I don’t know, but I doubt this is the last we’ll hear about what happened here.
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TOP MLB STORIES OF THE WEEK:
After a crazy start to his professional baseball career that included being drafted by two teams, and undergoing two different arm surgeries, Kumar Rocker finally made his Major League debut yesterday. He did great, striking out seven in four innings in a 5-4 win over the Mariners. He also became the first player of Indian descent to play in the majors. “I know I made my mom happy, so that’s cool,” he told reporters after the game.
Speaking of trailblazers, Angels rookie Samuel Aldeghiri became the first baseball pitcher born and raised in Italy to make the majors last month. He will start vs. Houston tonight, and his emergence in a sport Italians typically don’t care about has been a big deal in his home country. [Jeff Fletcher / Orange County Register]
The Brewers Jackson Chourio became the youngest player in MLB history to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in the same season. [Adam McCalvy / MLB.com]
The White Sox have a team OPS of .616 this season. Former Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano had a career OPS of .636. [@jayhaykid / X.com]
Former A’s owner Wally Haas called current A’s owner John Fisher’s decision to move the A’s out of Oakland “frankly unforgivable.” [John Shea / San Francisco Chronicle]
The Miami Marlins are now set to break the record of most players used in a single season once one of the two pitchers they just called up enters a game. The previous record (69) was held by the 2019 Seattle Mariners. [Craig Mish / Miami Herald]
Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his return to the mound for the Dodgers on Tuesday and pitched better than the team even hoped, striking out 8 in four dominant innings. [Juan Toribio/ MLB.com]
Former Dodger Cody Bellinger has now hit 6 homers in 13 games as a visitor at Dodger Stadium. [Sarah Wexler/ MLB.com]
Anthony Rendon was placed on the injured list for the 11th(!) time as an Angel. When asked if he thought he could do anything differently to stay healthy during the final two years of his enormous contract, Rendon answered, “No idea. If you have any recommendations I’ll take them. I feel like I’ve exhausted every blood test, every DNA test, food, nutrition, allergies, anti-inflammatory stuff. And I have no idea. Everything that’s not a banned substance.” [Jeff Fletcher/ Orange County Register]
Manny Machado set the all-time Padres franchise home run record with 164. [Josh Kirshenbaum / MLB.com]
Jacob deGrom will make his season debut tonight after a 16-month absence due to injury. [Shawn McFarland / Dallas Morning News]
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The Bender story is interesting...there's a great moment in MLB Network's Maddux documentary (which is awesome, but the way, unlike the actual network) about him wanting to go home his first year. It's gotta be tough on these kids mentally to transition from home and high school to professional ball far from home.
Maybe he'll get another chance.
Hello the Everybody!
I too, hope young Mr. Bender gets another chance should he want one.
I'm reminded of Jake Taylor in "Major League" telling the opposing batter while Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn is on the mound--"What do ya think the kid thinks about the ole' number one?!" Wouldn't have been quite as good an ending if Taylor was cut, and never got to walk off the field in celebration with Rene Russo.