How should MLB try to curb the league’s recent gambling issues?
USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale explains why sports gambling, especially in the MLB, is getting worse.
Sports Seriously
Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic threats of violence.
PHOENIX — They receive death threats.
They are followed home by strangers.
They are abused and derided.
They are Major League Baseball players, who can tell you all about the menacing threats that have been inflicted upon their lives since MLB and gambling companies got into bed together.
“You hear it all, man,” Arizona Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald told USA TODAY Sports. “You blow a save, you don’t come through, you get it all. “(Expletive) you. You suck. You cost me all of this money.
“(Expletive) you. (Expletive) your family. I’m going to kill you and then kill your family.’
“It gets ugly really quickly. It’s scary, and it’s sad. It used to be fans who were upset because you blew the game for the team, but now it’s gambling. These people don’t really care about the Diamondbacks. They just care about their bets, and we’re talking about money they don’t have that they are losing. So, it’s a very scary spot.”
One MLB general manager told USA TODAY Sports that he received death threats delivered directly to his house, requiring police protection.
“I remember being followed home one time when I was playing for Cleveland,” Diamondbacks reliever Logan Allen said. “I had a really bad game, and this guy follows me home, and starts cussing at me, telling me I cost him all of this money.
“It’s scary.”
The Major League Baseball Players Association began publicly voicing concerns about player safety after a Supreme Court decision that ultimately opened the door for it to become legal to gamble on sporting events in 38 states and the District of Columbia, with teams constructing sports-betting sites outside their ballparks. The union negotiated Amendment 61 to the collective bargaining agreement requiring teams to be proactive in curbing fans’ aggressive behavior towards players.
“Clubs shall include in their fan policies a prohibition against betting-related, abusive fan speech and behavior that is directed at players, players’ family members, club personnel or umpires. …
“The parties will jointly develop a safety hotline for players to report any threats, potentially threatening communications or other inappropriate sports better-related conduct or contact that a player or any member his family received related to sports better (e.g., social media messages threatening violence as retribution for a gambler’s losses.)”
The amendments also restrict teams from placing gambling information on their scoreboard before and during games: “No betting lines on player-specific performance or other player-specific betting-related information may be displayed on in-stadium videoboards or other in-stadium signage during a game or during pre-game warm-ups.”
Yet, as the players will tell you, no scoreboard is needed with fans constantly reminding them about the odds, prop bets and parlays while they’re on the field before games.
And if your team doesn’t win, or you fail to hold up your end of the prop bet, guess who hears about it?
“You get some messed up stuff, a lot of nasty DMs (direct social media messages),” San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb said. “People are really passionate about teams, and now that you add money to it, it’s bigger than ever.
“My first year, there wasn’t that much gambling going on. It was just , ‘Oh, you suck. You shouldn’t be on the team.’ Just things like that.
“Now, you’re getting, ‘You just cost me money.’ They say some (messed) up (expletive). I get a lot of that with strikeouts. ‘Hey, I got money on you for strikeouts. Are you going to hit it?’
“I always look up and say, ‘Probably not.’
“There are times it gets pretty serious.”
When players like Giants third baseman Matt Chapman and Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker come to the plate, instead of their own fans cheering for them to get a hit, fans will remind them they have them in their parlay, and they better hit a home run or at least a double.
“People are always talking (expletive),” Walker said. “You’re in the on-deck circle, and someone’s like, ‘Come on, I need you. I need plus-2. Hit a double for me.
“People have their phones out as the game happens now. It’s not a situation anymore where you place a bet before the game, and then you’re at the mercy of it (the bet) the whole game. It’s real time as innings are unfolding and they make little prop bets.
“I can show you my DMs that are full with people talking (expletive), saying how you cost them money and saying some nasty (expletive). That’s part of it. It shouldn’t be part of it. But it is part of professional sports now.”
It has become so appalling that fans are now requesting payment from players for their lost wages in bets.
“Fans used to just say normal things like, ‘You’re a bum,’” said Chapman, a seven-year veteran. “Now, that they have all that money on us, fans will talk a lot of (expletive) to us. I’ll even have fans Venmo requesting me for money. I had to change my Venmo.”
Said Giants veteran reliever Tyler Rogers: “I had to make my Venmo private because I’d blow a game or something, and people would find me on Venmo, and they’d send me requests. ‘Hey, you cost me $1,500. You better pay me back.’
“It definitely gets people a lot more upset than it used to.”
Chicago White Sox outfielder Tommy Pham spends time at the Las Vegas casinos in the offseason, and sees how gambling has dramatically changed fans’ acrimony in recent years, particularly from those who are betting beyond their financial means.
“It’s getting completely out hand,” Pham said. “As a Blackjack gambler myself, you shouldn’t bet on anything you’re not prepared to lose, but we know that doesn’t happen, and it brings out all of these keyboard warriors.
“It’s getting worse and worse.”
Frankly, it’s terrifying.
Benjamin Tucker Patz, a 24-year-old sports gambler, plead guilty in 2021 for sending a string of social media messages to four players on the Tampa Bay Rays and one player on the White Sox after a 2019 game the Rays lost.
Here’s a sampling of the horrifying messages to one Rays player:
- “I will sever your neck open you pathetic (expletive).”
- “I will enter your home while you sleep, and sever your neck open.”
- “I will kill your entire family.”
- “Everyone you love will soon cease.”
- “I will cut up your family.”
- “Dismember them alive.”
Patz also sent threats to players on Atlanta, San Diego, Oakland, Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City and Toronto.
So what was Patz’s punishment when he plead guilty?
Three years of probation and six months of home confinement. Not a single day of jail time.
The odds of Patz’s deviant behavior being just an isolated incident is the same as believing there are no other players who gamble on baseball; no club employees are routinely providing lineup and health information to gamblers; and that Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, made 19,000 bets without telling a soul.
Still, despite the inherent danger, not only to players but to the potential integrity of the game, Major League Baseball endlessly promotes gambling websites.
“You cannot watch one set of commercials between innings without a gambling commercial,” Sewald said. “FanDuel. DraftKings. MGM. Caesars. We’re promoting the hell out of this, and then to say, ‘Oh, I don’t know what guys are gambling’?”
When MLB banned San Diego’s Tucupita Marcano for life this past week after betting on baseball while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and suspended four other players for one year, it was to serve as a warning for other players as a reminder that it’s illegal to bet on baseball.
“It’s tough because it’s such a fine line,” Sewald said. “The more people that bet on our sport, the more people are watching. The more people watch, the richer we all get, right?
“But it’s such a slippery slope because it’s an addiction that people cannot stop. People get aggressive in this mode. We’re talking about real money, and they’re gambling with money that they don’t have.
“And it’s never been easier to gamble. Everyone can do it in their phone. This isn’t like illegal bookie stuff or sketchy stuff. Anyone can do it as easily as they want.”
It’s too late to stop baseball’s affair with gambling. Gambling is far too lucrative to owners to halt all of the promotions, sponsorships and advertisements from gambling sites.
Yet, unless the promotions and advertisements start to at least be curtailed from their own network and games, until fans’ harassment, threats and intimidation stop, don’t be surprised if gambling scandals become as much a fabric in baseball as pine tar.
MLB will soon implement an automatic strike zone, likely in 2026, sparing the umpires of all of the vitriol they receive. If you’re an umpire, do you really want the threats that await if you happen to miss a pitch in late innings?
“When that happens, you watch,” Allen says, “it will be a huge thing where people will start betting on automatic strikes. If they do the challenge system, there will be an over-under on how many times somebody challenges the ball and strikes in a game. How many are overturned? How many are wrong. They’ll start having (betting) lines for that, you just watch.”
Yes, so don’t forget to stop by the Caesars Sportsbook when you walk through the gates of Chase Field to catch the Diamondbacks. Who needs to sit in the Wrigley Field bleachers when you can hang outside the ballpark at the DraftKings Sportsbook? Why brave the elements watching your first-place Cleveland Guardians when you can plop inside at the Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field?
Oh, and if you’re a baseball player, please adhere to Rule 21, prohibiting you from gambling on baseball, but if you want to share some inside information with your gambling friends, hey, just don’t get caught.
The genie is out of the gambling bottle, death threats, corruption and consequences be damned.
Besides, who needs integrity when there’s a revenue stream pouring oceans of gambling money into the game with everyone getting rich, right?
Around the basepaths
≻ The Chicago White Sox have no immediate plans to dismiss manager Pedro Grifol, refusing to solely blame him for being baseball’s worst team.
The White Sox believe it would make no sense to bring in and pay another manager when the team’s fate isn’t going to change no matter who’s in the dugout. Grifol is in the second year of a three-year contract for about $3 million. The White Sox are expected to re-assess this winter to determine whether a managerial change is needed.
≻ The White Sox are listening to offers on anybody and everybody, including center fielder Luis Robert, who’s under contract through 2027, and owed about $61 million if his two club options are picked up. The White Sox would command a package greater than what the Padres gave up for Juan Soto at the 2022 deadline.
It’s unlikely they will trade ace Garrett Crochet (6-5, 3.33 ERA), who’s earning only $800,000 this season and won’t be a free agent until after 2026.
It’s also a longshot any contender would overwhelm the White Sox with a package of prospects knowing that he may be on an innings limit with his injury history. The White Sox are closely monitoring his workload after being converting him from a reliever to a starter. His availability may be limited in the second half, and it’s questionable whether he would even pitch in September or October.
Crochet, 24, who missed the entire 2022 season with Tommy John surgery, has already pitched more innings this season (75 ⅔ innings) than his career combined total (73 innings) in his previous three seasons.
≻ The trade deadline could be quite dull if this mediocrity continues and teams don’t start winning.
There are only four teams in the National League who even a have winning record, and there are only five teams who are more than 4 ½ games out of a wild-card spot: the White Sox, Angels, Athletics, Rockies and Marlins.
There also have been 15 teams since 2001, including seven since 2016, who have gone from 10 games below .500 during the season to 10 games above .500. The Washington Nationals were 19-31 after 50 games and won the 2019 World Series.
It could be a seller’s paradise with so many teams in the race.
≻ Rival executives believe that if the Toronto Blue Jays don’t turn it around, and are unable to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette to extensions, they will be open to moving them.
The Chicago Cubs have privately discussed the possibility of trying to acquire Guerrero at the trade deadline.
≻ Juan Soto is having a much stronger season than he did with the San Diego Padres, several players say, because of the way Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge has embraced Soto.
“You can tell the difference,” one Padre veteran said. “He’s so much happier than he was here. You can tell he was just never comfortable. Now he is. He’s a different guy.”
Certainly, the stats prove it:
Soto is hitting .318 with a 1.027 OPS playing for the Yankees compared to .248 with a .877 OPS with the Padres after the first 61 games of the season, including nearly twice as many homers and RBI.
≻ The Philadelphia Phillies are keeping an eye on Diamondbacks left-handed hitting outfielder Jake McCarthy if the D-backs decide to make him available at the trade deadline
≻ The Colorado Rockies have already blown five games in the ninth inning or later while entering the ninth with at least a five-run lead, the most in a single season in the modern era, according to Codify Baseball.
≻ If the Kansas City Royals’ future wasn’t bright enough, veteran scouts who have followed their rookie ball and Class A teams say they have seven players who are prized MLB prospects.
≻ While Mets first baseman Pete Alonso is expected to seek at least $200 million in the free-agent market this winter, teams seeking first basemen can instead turn to Paul Goldschmidt, Rhys Hoskins and Christian Walker, all who are eligible for free agency.
≻ The Padres have never been happier paying bonuses to a player than Jurickson Profar, who was signed to a one-year, $1 million contract. He’s earning bonuses for plate appearances that could max out at a total of $2.5 million.
He’s the best bargain in baseball and the Padres’ best player.
He’s hitting .322 with a major-league leading .419 on-base percentage and a .910 OPS.
≻ This is the year, rival executives say, that the Seattle Mariners make their boldest move at the trade deadline and acquire offensive help knowing they have a legitimate chance for the World Series with their start-studded starting rotation.
Their most aggressive move in recent years was acquiring ace Luis Castillo from the Cincinnati Reds at the 2022 trade deadline, going 35-24 the rest of the season and ending their 21-year playoff drought.
Mets first baseman Pete Alonso may be the perfect fit.
≻ While teams like the Yankees would love to get their hands on Colorado third baseman Ryan McMahon, the Rockies have no plans to trade him. McMahon is beloved in the organization and is in the third year of a six-year, $70 million contract.
≻ The Diamondbacks are willing to listen to offers for struggling third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who could soon lose his everyday job. Suarez has a $15 million club option the D-backs don’t intend to exercise.
≻ Texas Rangers GM Chris Young’s contract expires after the season, but the Rangers are expected to reward him with a lucrative extension later this year.
≻ So how has it worked out for starters Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, who missed spring training and signed two-year contracts with opt-outs in March?
Snell is on the injured list for the second time with an 0-3 record, 9.51 ERA, 1.944 WHIP, pitching just 23 ⅔ innings this season. He has yet to pitch five innings in a start.
Montgomery has been healthy but is 3-4 with a 6.80 ERA and a 1.727 WHIP. He is averaging just 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings compared to his career 8.2-strikeout rate per nine innings.
≻ While the Marlins are shopping virtually anyone and everyone, only reliever Tanner Scott appears to be definitely moved. They will have to eat a significant portion of first baseman Josh Bell’s $16.5 million contract in any trade.
≻ Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton are are the first trio in Yankees franchise history to hit at least 15 homers through the team’s first 62 games.
≻ Phillies All-Star Bryce Harper continues to lobby MLB officials to permit MLB players to participate in the 2028 Olympics, even though it would require shutting down the season for perhaps three weeks.
“There’s nothing more worldwide than the Olympics,” Harper told reporters in London. “I watch the most random sports in the Olympics because it’s the Olympics, and that’s really cool. I love hockey. It’s one of my favorite sports to watch. To see (the NHL) take that three-week break and let those guys go play, that’s another big goal that we should have as Major League Baseball.
“I’ve talked to numerous people with MLB about it. I would love to be a part of that. We have the WBC, but it’s not the same. It’s not. The Olympics is something that you dream about playing in.”
≻ The Yankees continue to rave about the defense of left fielder Alex Verdugo after going through 16 left fielders the past two seasons.
“He’s been one of the best outfielders I’ve ever played with,” said Judge told reporters. “It doesn’t matter if he’s feeling 100% or not, or if he got a hit or didn’t get a hit. He’s out there with that same mentality: ‘I’ve got to go out and make a play.’”
≻ That was a brutal mistake by the Marlins signing outfielder Avisail Garcia a 4-year, $53 million contract in 2021, and now designating him for assignment and eating the remaining $24.6 million left in his deal.
Garcia had a .217/.260/.322 slash line with 13 homers in 153 games as their second-highest paid player.
He produced a .262/.330/.490 slash line with a career-high 29 homers in 2021 with the Brewers.
≻ Chris Sale was on the injured list eight times with the Boston Red Sox, including at least once every season since 2018.
Now that he’s with Atlanta, he has been their workhorse, going at least seven innings in seven of his 12 starts, while striking out at least eight in six of the starts.
≻ Would anyone blame Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow for suing the Dodgers for lack of run support?
In Glasnow’s last five starts, he has yielded a 3.33 ERA, striking out 41 batters in 30 innings.
The Dodgers did not score a single run while he was in the game.
≻ While the Phillies and New York Mets played in London over the weekend, the third year MLB games have been played across the pond, next year MLB will host a weekend series in Paris.
Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale