#competitive-integrity

#competitive-integrity

As the league continues to deal with the fallout from a gambling scandal that exposed how injury information and late-season lineup decisions can be exploited, officials have begun exploring new ways to remove the incentive to lose on purpose. The focus isn't on rebuilding teams as a whole, but on the gray areas that allow competitive integrity to erode late in the season, particularly when draft positioning and protected picks come into play.

The Justice Department says that Clase and Ortiz repeatedly threw pitches out of the strike zone as part of a scheme with gamblers who would wager on those pitches to be balls. Sometimes, the bettors would also wager on the velocity of the pitches. These were the first pitches of at-bats, where sportsbooks offered action on whether it would be a ball or strike.