Tipping Point: Twins Release 2024 Draft Pick for Pitch Tipping

Pitch Tipping has always been a thing in baseball. Teams and players, trying to gain an advantage, watch everything a pitcher does on the mound. Maybe a pitcher holds his glove slightly higher when he’s going to throw a curveball. Maybe he slightly slows his delivery on a changeup. You would be surprised at how minute a detail can give a team an advantage. 

Going back to 2015, the year Torii Hunter returned to the organization for one more season. Paul Molitor was the manager and the two were both seen as among the best in picking up tells from the pitchers. Often, Twins pitchers would go to Hunter or Molitor and have them watch some pitches to see if they might see something that the opponents could pick up on. 

For decades, it was a source of pride if a team could find a tell by a pitcher and share it with his teammates. Other times, the team will be able to figure out a catcher’s sign pattern and give tiny hints to the hitter from second base about what pitch is coming. Sometimes the first base coach can see it. 

There were always rumors inside the game that in the late 70s and early 80s, the White Sox used to use a center field camera and the scoreboard features (lights) to pass information from video watcher to batter. Of course, players from those teams, and their manager Tony LaRussa deny such claims. LaRussa went on to manage in Oakland with players who rarely found controversy. 

It became a controversial topic when the Astros won the World Series with the help of technology and garbage cans. What was different? The use of technology to obtain the information. That is what MLB has tried to crack down on. 

According to ESPNs Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel, the Twins cracked down on pitch tipping in the organization. They released 2024 draft pick Derek Bender about two months after selecting him for tipping pitches. 

If you aren’t aware, Bender is not a pitcher. He is a catcher, and according to the reports, he was flat-out telling opposing hitters what pitches were coming. 

If you recall, the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were playing in Lakeland last week against the Tigers Low-A affiliate. After games were rained out on Wednesday and Thursday, the Mussels needed to win three of the final four games to claim the second-half division title from Lakeland. They played a double-header last Friday. They lost a suspended game.  

In the second game, Bender was set to bat ninth and catcher Mussels starter, lefty Ross Dunn. Dunn, a 2023 draft pick, went just 1 2/3 innings in that game but the damage had been done. He gave up four runs in the second inning. He gave up five hits and walked a batter. In the first inning, he got a ground out, gave up a double in between two strikeouts. 

The second inning began with a long home run by Archer Brookman. Jackson Strong singled. After a force out, there was a walk. And then a hard-hit, line-drive double by David Smith drove in two runs. After a ground out, Jack Penney drove in the fourth run with another double. At that point, Dunn was removed from the game. 

Lakeland scored just two more runs over the course of the game. The Mussels managed just two hits in the entire game, so ultimately it didn’t really affect the outcome. 

But that alone isn’t proof of anything. Dunn ended his first pro season with an ERA of 6.46. He often gave up big innings. 

However, it was the Lakeland coaches who approached the Mussels coaching staff after the game and after their players were reporting that the Mussels catcher was flat-out telling them what pitches were coming. 

From ESPN: “Fort Myers coaches were notified by Lakeland coaches about Bender's pitch tipping after the game, sources said. Bender's willingness to tip pitches surprised Lakeland players, and there were no indications of wrongdoing from the Flying Tigers, sources said. Bender had told teammates he wanted the season to be over, according to sources.”

Mussels manager Brian Meyer did not play Bender in the final two games. Instead, he was out in the bullpen. The Mussels won their final two games to go out on a good note, but this has to leave a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of teammates, coaches, and probably players around the game. 

The Twins drafted Bender in the sixth round of the 2024 draft out of Coastal Carolina. He became an everyday player there as a sophomore in 2023. In 62 games, he hit .341/.399/.635 (1.034) with 13 doubles, 19 homers and 83 RBI.

That summer, he played for Bourne in the Cape Cod League.  You may remember seeing this video. 

In 60 games this spring, Bender hit .320/.422/.520 (.942) with nine doubles, two triples, and 11 home runs. The Twins drafted him and quickly signed him with a $297,500 bonus (right at slot). He went to Fort Myers to begin his pro career.   

On August 7th, he made his pro debut and went 2-for-4 with a walk in Jupiter. Six days later, against Lakeland, he went 2-for-3 with his first professional home run, a three-run shot.   

A week later, in Tampa, he went 2-for-3 with a walk. He had two doubles and three RBI. 

Through his first 11 games, he hit .306/.405/.528 (.933) with two doubles and two home runs. However, over his final eight games, he was 1-for-24 (.042). Last week in Lakeland, he played in three games and went 0-for-7.  

There’s a reason that teams don’t worry too much about the small sample size of games that current year draft picks put up. Consider that the college kids have  been going hard every day since mid-January, played a full 60 game college season, went through the draft combine and other ways to be ready, and then come in and play another series of games. And then many of them stick around for the Bridge League or Instructs. Add in the grueling heat in both Florida and Arizona, and the southwest Florida humidity, and frequent tropical storms and hurricanes. There is just a lot. 

Part of me wants to give Derek Bender the benefit of the doubt. I would love to hear his side of this story, whatever that may be. I did reach out to Bender and offered a place for him to tell his side, but as of publishing this article, there was no response. From the ESPN article, they reached out to him through his agency and got no comment, and obviously the Twins are going to try to keep it internal… as they should. 

Part of me wants to say that I understand burnout after a long season. It can be grueling, and frankly, players need their rest. That year is a lot. But others do it. Did Bender have a momentary lapse? Has he been wanting his season to end for a while? Maybe he doesn’t even like playing baseball all that much. Maybe he’s just always been so good at it that he felt obligated to keep going, and it gave him an opportunity in college, but now he’s ready to do something else. That’s OK. We don’t know. 

What isn’t OK, and obviously what he was released for is quitting on his team. Not only that, but actively helping them lose games. As a teammate, as much as I would want to understand, I would find it hard to have a guy around that you know has actively tried to make your team lose games. 

Could Bender play again? Probably. I know I tend to believe in second chances. He’s still a very young 21 year old. But if you were one of his teammates, could you ever trust him fully? Would that trust ever come back? Baseball is hard enough that you don’t want every error or every 0-for-4 game to come with additional questions about your effort. 

So, no, I don’t expect Derek Bender to ever return to the Twins organization. And with the coverage that this story has received, and that it will receive in coming days, I can’t imagine any other MLB team to give him an opportunity either. 

If he ever does want to get into baseball, it may have to be by going through the independent leagues (if they are even interested). That’s the route that two of his Coastal Carolina teammates had to go. Fellow 2023 Chanticleers, Payton Eeles and Nick Lucky, were signed by the Twins earlier this season. Lucky spent five years in Conway (SC). Since signing with the Twins, he has played in Fort Myers, Cedar Rapids and even a game in St. Paul. Eeles? Well, since signing with the Twins very early this year, he has hit .307 with a .919 OPS between Fort Myers (34 games), Cedar Rapids (13), and St. Paul (54). 

The Twins did the right thing in releasing Bender. Hopefully Bender won’t find himself regretting this and asking himself What If for the next couple of decades?

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