MLB says banned ex-A's pitcher lied about bets, made threats

The story of MLB keeping a former minor league pitcher out of baseball for a few piddling bets may be a bit more complex than that.

Earlier this month, Peter Bayer, a former pitcher in the A's system, said that he was banned for three straight years for "placing wagers on a few MLB games during the 2020 COVID year when [minor league baseball] did not have a season."

On Monday, The Athletic reported that MLB's investigation found that Bayer allegedly lied about his gambling habits and tried to obstruct the league's investigation over the matter, according to a letter from Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Bayer says that the ongoing suspension is causing problems for his "aspirations to work as a coach or with a team in another capacity."

He argued in his post that his bets were made through legal sportsbooks, he was "considered unemployed" because minor league contracts were suspended and he "never once bet on baseball when physically playing (or under contract) or bet on it to compromise the integrity of the sport." Bayer told The Athletic that he made 20 wagers (later rounded up to 30) that were "never more than $100." His initial story garnered understandable sympathy from many, as MLB profits handsomely from legal gambling.

The MLB letter paints a completely different story.

"Data collected shows that you placed over 100 baseball-related wagers from May 2020 through August 2020 including at least 12 wagers involving the Athletics and at least 25 wagers of $1,000 or more," reads Manfred's letter to Bayer, per The Athletic.

When Bayer initially went public, MLB said that in addition to his gambling, he "engaged in other misconduct that was not in the best interest of baseball." The 27-year-old told gambling site Sports Handle he believed that was a reference "to comments he made in various publications criticizing low wages for minor-league players."

Manfred's letter raises another possible version of misconduct: alleged threats Bayer made toward a state gambling regulator via email. He told the regulator "that assisting MLB’s investigation would not be a 'good look' for the regulator if Bayer were to 'take this to the media,'" according to The Athletic. Bayer then reportedly asked "the regulator to 'let this go before (Bayer took) this to the press.'"

Bayer continues to deny MLB's accusations about how much he gambled. "No, they were not for those amounts. I don’t even have that much money," he said. But he cracked the door open to other accusations. "During 2020, I wasn’t all mentally there," he told The Athletic. "It was such a blur to me. I don’t think I was thinking clearly. I thought I could get away with it. Honestly, that’s all it was."