Major League Baseball is reportedly starting to take a stricter approach to players using foreign substances, which includes umpires randomly checking pitchers during their starts.
And this might cause some pitchers to have to change their ways. When New York Yankees pitcher, and AL Cy Young Award odds-on favorite, Gerrit Cole, was asked on Tuesday by a reporter if he's ever used a certain sticky substance called Spider Tack on the mound, he didn’t exactly give a definitive answer.
"I don't ... I don't know ... I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest," Cole said. "There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players, and I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard."
“This is important to a lot of people who love the game, including the players in this room, including fans, including teams,” he continued. "So if MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that's a conversation that we can have. Because ultimately we should all be pulling in the same direction on this."
And his odds to win this year's AL Cy Young shifted slightly following these comments.
At BetMGM, Cole’s odds were +100 on Monday before he spoke with reporters and on Wednesday they were at -140.
It was reported by Buster Olney this week that MLB is cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances and is possibly expected to implement random checks of pitchers by umpires multiple times per game within the next two weeks.
Even if MLB frowns upon the use of foreign substances, bettors are still behind Cole despite the pitcher not denying the use of Spider Tack.
Lucy is a sports betting content producer with Audacy and BetQL. She has worked with WEEI and Audacy as a writer, radio producer and podcaster. Lucy lives in Boston and loves Tom Brady and prop bets. Follow Lucy on Twitter at @LucilleBurdge.
