An ex-minor league catcher was accused of trying to lose on purpose. He says he didn't tip pitches

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A former minor league catcher in the Minnesota Twins organization who was released last year, reportedly because he tried to make sure his team would lose so the season would end, denied the allegation in an interview with The Athletic and said he didn't tip any pitches to his opponents.

Derek Bender, who made his professional debut last year with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels was accused of telling opposing hitters the specific pitches that were being thrown during a game on Sept. 6 that eliminated Minnesota's Class-A affiliate from contention for the Florida State League playoffs. ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported then that Fort Myers coaches were informed after the game by their opponent, the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a farm club for Detroit.

“I'll live with this until the day I die. I never gave pitches away,” Bender told The Athletic for a story published on Thursday. “I never tried to give the opposing team an advantage against my own team.”

Major League Baseball has been investigating the situation, according to The Athletic. After Bender, a sixth-round draft pick in 2024 out of Coastal Carolina, was released by the Twins on Sept. 12, ESPN in its report said Bender had told teammates he wanted the season to be over.

Bender told The Athletic he was exhausted at that point of the year but that he was joking about tanking to try to ensure defeat.

“A lot of us are coming off of college seasons, coming off of a pretty grueling summer schedule,” Bender said in the interview. “Then you get there and you're hitting .200, you're facing some of the best stuff consistently you've ever seen. You're sinking or swimming, and you're pretty close to sinking. The conversations are that everybody's ready to go home.”

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