Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday numerous players have received threats related to gambling and expressed concern over the safety of the league’s athletes.
Speaking before Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Manfred didn’t mention any specifics about the messages players say they have been receiving, but he stressed that the league is considering potential courses of action.
“If a player receives a threat from any source, on any topic, it is a matter of concern to us that we take really seriously,” Manfred said. “I’ve had players in the last month mention this issue to me as one of concern and we’re discussing what we should do to be more proactive in this area.”
MLB Players’ Association leader Tony Clark, a former All-Star first baseman, said the union, “had concerns at the outset and we still have them now, particularly as more players, whether in our sport or otherwise, find themselves in the crosshairs.
“What we continue to do and we’ll stay committed to is ensuring that the process is in place, the due process that’s in place is such that players are treated fairly against the backdrop of accusations that may arise.”
In a separate interview this week, Manfred stressed that, “our number one issue, the single thing on which there is no compromise, is the integrity of the game on the field.”
Manfred confident MLB is handling gambling violations well
Manfred’s comments come on the heels of several player suspensions this season.
San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball for life last month for betting on the sport. Oakland pitcher Michael Kelly was suspended for a year for betting on baseball as a minor-leaguer and three players currently in the minor leagues were also banned for a year for wagering on MLB games.
MLB said on June 15 that it also plans to discipline umpire Pat Hoberg following an investigation into a potential violation of sports gambling policies. MLB didn’t find evidence that games worked by Hoberg were compromised, and Hoberg has appealed.
Meanwhile, in an indirectly related headline-making case, Shohei Ohtani‘s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, pleaded guilty to fraud charges after stealing money from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts.
In the wake of this slate of incidents, Manfred said he is confident the league is taking adequate action to identify and prevent gambling violations.
“I am generally a believer that penalties and demonstrations of your ability to figure out what’s going on serve as a deterrent,” Manfred said. “To work your whole life to get to the major leagues in whatever role and then lose that over sports betting or gambling, that’s a huge penalty.”
He added that working with MLB’s integrity monitoring partners helped the league detect those incidents. “Our ability to monitor is one of the positives that comes with legalization. In the old days, you didn’t have gambling scandals. It didn’t mean they didn’t have gambling, you just didn’t know about it.
“I think the relationships that we built with sports betting enterprises, which has given us the ability to use technology to monitor betting activities, I really, truly believe that we are in a better position to know what’s going on today than we were in the old days where it was all illegal.”
