Report: Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart to be investigated by MLB for alleged gambling ties

Chris Cwik
·Staff writer
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Major League Baseball is investigating Miami Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart for his possible ties to gambling, according to the Miami New Times.

Cosart will be investigated after tweets were released alleging the 24-year-old pitcher had privately reached out for gambling advice on Twitter. The tweets were sent as direct messages, which are intended to be private one-on-one conversations, but the self-proclaimed online sports gambling expert on the other end of Cosart's conversation decided to make them public.

While the direct message contains no mention of betting on baseball, Cosart deleted his Twitter account Tuesday after it was flooded with messages asking whether he bet on the game.

The allegations don't come from the most reliable sources, according to the New Times.

Before jumping into the tale, it's worth noting: The entire firestorm stems from essentially anonymous tweets from so-called gambling experts on Twitter. In other words, these are not the most reliable or transparent sources on the Internet. So take every allegation with a Marlins Park-sized grain of salt.

Pat Courtney, MLB's chief communications officer, has confirmed that the league will look into the claims. MLB has a very strict policy when it comes to betting on baseball. The league investigated Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke last August for similar claims, though he was eventually cleared. Locke's incident, however, shows how serious MLB is when it comes to these matters.

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It was briefly believed that Cosart had started another Twitter account Wednesday in order to respond to the allegations, but it could not be confirmed that the account was actually Cosart's. The new account has since been deleted.

This isn't the first time Cosart has gotten himself in trouble on Twitter. Last season, Cosart used a gay slur in a tweet mentioning Justin Bieber. He later deleted the tweet and apologized.

The New Times has reached out to Cosart's agent for further comment on the current allegations, but has yet to receive a response.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik