Released by the Minnesota Twins organization in September after he was accused of tipping pitches to opponents, Derek Bender denied the allegations in an interview with The Athletic published Friday.
‘I’ll live with this until the day I die. I never gave pitches away,’ Bender said. ‘I never tried to give the opposing team an advantage against my own team.”
A sixth-round pick in July’s draft, the catcher was alleged to have told opposing hitters what pitches were coming in an effort to expedite the end of his Fort Myers Mighty Mussels’ minor-league season on Sept. 6. Coaches from the Lakeland Flying Tigers brought Bender’s tipping to the attention of Fort Myers staff after the game, ESPN reported at the time.
Bender admits he had joked with teammates prior to the games about wanting the baseball season to be over, but says he wasn’t serious.
“A lot of us are coming off of college seasons, coming off of a pretty grueling summer schedule,” Bender said. “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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Bender said the Twins were willing to keep him in the organization on the condition that he admit to everything and apologize. He told The Athletic that he apologized to the club, but wouldn’t say what he was apologizing for.
“The only thing I had left was my character at that point,” Bender said. “Literally, the way they put it was, ‘If you want to die by the sword, we’ll release you.’ I knew there was no bluffing involved.”
Bender said his agents advised him against doing an interview in the months since the allegations came to light, asking him to wait until the league investigation was complete. Once Bender did The Athletic interview, his agency Octagon dropped him as a client.
“It’s about gaining control over my life,” Bender said. “And this whole situation. I’m not doing this as a last-ditch effort to get back into affiliate ball. It’s more of this is the start of me taking control of my life again. Because I’ve let this completely control me for months now.”
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