Minnesota Twins Release 2024 Draft Pick After Catching Him Cheating for Opponents

The Minnesota Twins are working towards postseason positioning at the big league level with just a handful of games left. At the minor league level they apparently employed a weenie that wasn’t interested in competing. The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels missed the playoffs, and it might have been an inside job.

Derek Bender turns out to be a loser for the Minnesota Twins

This might be the only time you have ever heard of Derek Bender, and it will probably be the last time in the context of professional baseball. The Minnesota Twins paid him nearly $300k as a 6th round draft pick in 2024 . The Coastal Carolina product then tanked his career in the matter of a single game. ESPN’s Jeff Passan dropped a damning report when the organization released him on Thursday night.

“ Bender, a sixth-round draft pick out of Coastal Carolina in July, was playing for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, the Twins’ Single-A affiliate. In the second game of a Sept. 6 doubleheader, Bender told multiple hitters for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a Detroit farm team, the specific pitches being thrown by starter Ross Dunn, sources said. “

Jeff Passan on the release of Derek Bender (ESPN)

Ross Dunn is a 10th round pick from the 2023 draft class for Minnesota. This was his first season pitching at the professional level and Bender’s incompetence forced the second shortest start of his career. While telling the opposition what was coming, Bender gave the Lakeland Flying Tigers opportunity to score four runs in just 1 2/3 innings. This happened while the Mighty Mussels were literally in contention with Lakeland for the final playoff spot .

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Apparently Bender was looking to end the season and move on. Despite his signing bonus, there was clearly no intention to compete. Coincidentally he batted posted a poor .606 OPS in 19 games and almost assuredly ended his career with the charade.

Fort Myers should have angst towards Derek Bender’s actions

The Minnesota Twins took Derek Bender in the sixth round of the 2024 Major League Baseball draft due to his .942 OPS with Coastal Carolina. After not selecting a single catcher during the 2023 draft , they took multiple in 2024 . Clearly Bender was one they should have passed on for character reasons.

Multiple sources with ties to the Mighty Mussels had no idea that Bender would have made such an ugly decision. Frustration to complete distaste were the emotions expressed. A catcher tipping pitchers isn’t typically a reality without runners on base, and that would suggest that the Twins prospect was simply telling the opposition what was coming. It hit teammates in a dumbfounding fashion, and multiple expressed a level of bewilderment about the situation.

Minnesota could have had a handful of their recent draft picks playing for a championship this season. There could have been a playoff push that would have been useful as each grew throughout their professional careers. Instead there was a mercenary among them, and selfishness took over.

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It remains to be seen what happens for Derek Bender from here on out. It seems unlikely that any professional baseball organization could ever employ him again.

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