The Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday confirmed that they have signed veteran Taiwanese pitcher Tsao Chin-hui, who was implicated in a game-fixing scandal in Taiwan five years ago, to a minor league contract.
“He [Tsao Chin-hui] has been signed to a minor league deal,” Dodgers public relations director Joe Jareck confirmed in response to an e-mail query.
However, Jareck did not answer questions as to whether Tsao has been invited to join the Dodgers for spring training this year or whether the team is aware that Tsao was expelled from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 2010 over the game-fixing case.
The 33-year-old right-hander became the first Taiwanese pitcher to play in the US major leagues when he took the mound for the Colorado Rockies in 2003.
In 2007, he went to the Dodgers and appeared in 21 games as a reliever.
He then returned to Taiwan to play for the then-Brother Elephants in the CPBL in 2009, but was banned the next year after he was implicated in game-fixing.
In November last year, Tsao signed with the Adelaide Bite of the Australian Baseball League and traveled to Australia to prepare for the season, but after consultations with the CPBL and Major League Baseball, the club refused to allow him to play.
According to a source familiar with the operations of the MLB, the Dodgers likely had contacted the CPBL before signing Tsao.
The Dodgers probably considered a deal with Tsao to be acceptable, because Tsao was not indicted in the game-fixing case, the source said.
If the CPBL provides more information to the Dodgers that shows Tsao played a role in the scandal, the Dodgers would likely terminate his contract, the source said.
Observers said the Dodgers were hoping to strengthen their bullpen by signing Tsao, but if he does not perform well during spring training, he will have little chance of making the major league roster and sticking with the organization.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times published a commentary that questioned the Dodgers’ decision to sign a player who has not pitched in five years since being banned for promising to throw games.
“It’s just difficult to fathom that [Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew] Friedman’s desire to improve the bullpen would extend so low as to offer a minor league contract to Tsao,” Steve Dilbeck wrote.
Dilbeck said that game-fixing and gambling are the great no-nos in the MLB and the reasons eight players were banned from the game in the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and why Pete Rose has not been voted into the Hall of Fame.
Just like Tsao, the Black Sox were found not guilty in court, he said, but “it goes back to the integrity of the game, which remains crucial.”
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