Derek Bender, the former Minnesota Twins Minor League Catcher, who is examined because he has told the opposing rackets what the parking spaces would come, the allegations denied in an interview with athletic when he stays out of professional baseball.
“No,” said Bender in an interview released on Thursday to The Athletic when he was asked if he gave away the opposing battery pitches. “And I will live with it until the day I die. I have never given away pitch. I have never tried to give the opposing team an advantage against my own team.”
Bender, a draft in the sixth round in July by Coastal Carolina, played for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, the single-a-partners of the twins. In the second game of a Doubleader on September 6th, Bender told several goals for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a farm team in Detroit, with the specific parking spaces being thrown by Starter Ross Dunn.
Selection of the publisher
Lakeland scored four runs in the second inning and won the game 6-0 to win the Florida State League West Division and to remove the mighty mussels from the playoff dispute. Fort Myers' coaches were informed by the trainers of Lakeland about Benders Pitch Tip after the game, said sources of ESPN at that time.
Sources said ESPN that Bender said teammates that the season should be over. In his interview with The Athletic, Bender said that he joked the teammate about leaving a floor ball under her glove, but he wasn't serious.
According to Athletic, the Major League Baseball will continue to investigate the incident by the Major League Baseball, and Bender could expose itself to a permanent ban on the league.
“I had to get dark for at least three days,” Bender told the athletics of the reaction to the first story. “I had to do all of my social media accounts privately. I got death threats and terrible, obscene things that were told to me.”
The 22 -year -old Bender said he was trying to get back into a professional baseball. He said he would play the Independent Frontier League for the Brockton Rox this summer.
In the meantime, Bender said that he had heard of none of his former teammates, including Ross.
“There are many times in which they talk to people with whom they thought they were friends. They just don't see them right away,” said Bender about The Athletic. “I heard that my friends are asked about me why they are still friends with me. It is difficult to hear.
“It is not as if I was accused of committing a crime.”
Bender said The Athletic said that the twins were willing to keep him in the organization when he admitted and apologized. He said he apologized, but he would not say what he apologized for.
“The only thing I left at the time was my character,” said Bender about The Athletic. “In the truest sense of the word, the way they put it was: 'If you want to die from the sword, we will publish you.' I knew there were no bluffs.
His agents at Octagon said The Athletic that they had dropped Bender as a customer because they had told him that he should not carry out any interviews until the MLB examination was completed.
“It's about gaining control of my life,” said Bender to The Athletic, why he did the interview. “And this whole situation. I do not make this as a final effort to return to the affiliate ball. It is more the beginning that I take control of my life again. Because I have been completely checked for months.”
A catcher and first Baseman, who was selected in 2024 with the 188th election. He will keep the entire bonus after playing 19 games for Fort Myers and achieved with two Homeruns and eight RBIs .200/.273/.333.
In three seasons in Coastal Carolina, he scored with 32 homes and 153 RBIs in 144 games .326/.408/.571.
