MLB investigating Jarred Cosart for involvement with online gambler

Major League Baseball will look into the situation regarding Miami Marlins starter Jarred Cosart and his alleged involvement with an online gambler. The original report by Tim Elfrink of the Miami New Times discussed the situation, which initially stemmed from ambiguous Twitter posts by online gambling experts claiming Cosart's involvement in betting. The initial Tweet was from the @GhostFadeKillah account, which showed a supposed direct message from Cosart's account regarding bets made. Cosart has since deleted his Twitter account.

Since then, another Twitter account supposedly representing Cosart was made and claimed that these allegations were due to a hacked Twitter account, and then said account was deleted. Cosart has come out and said that his original account was deleted and subsequent accounts under his name were not real. The account from which the original incriminating Tweet came also spoke with New Times and reported that Cosart had messaged him back in mid-December. It also showed another picture showing Cosart discussing betting on college basketball games. The @GhostFadeKillah account reported that he never saw any evidence pointing to the possibility that Cosart would bet on baseball games.

Major League Baseball has launched an initial probe on the matter, as it takes gambling seriously. MLB players are obviously not allowed to gamble on baseball games, but they are allowed to gamble outside of baseball, so the probe is likely to determine if there was any MLB-related activity going on. Cosart officially has stated that he is cooperating with MLB officials with regards to the investigation.

"Obviously, I was caught off guard by the whole situation, and all I'm really saying to everyone is I'm following MLB protocol and talking with MLB security, and they're taking care of the rest," Cosart said. "So that's where I stand right now, and that's it."

No one is doing a lot of talking, for obvious reasons. These are still just allegations, and they are coming from anonymous sources via Twitter. They are also based on pictures from Twitter accounts via phones, all of which point to the obvious possibility of Photoshopped "proof." Nothing that has been said on either side should be implied as guilt or innocence on the matter. At the same time, Cosart has not been without his warts over the course of his young career, and seeing another potential scandal involving his name is disheartening, even if the allegations eventually end up being untrue.

So far, this is unlikely to affect Cosart's roster status. The investigation comes without any official allegations or actions by MLB, so no on-field consequences should be expected unless evidence begins to pile up. The Marlins are trying to start off the 2015 season on the right foot, and while this is not a disastrous situation, it certainly is not an enviable one. Miami may have to deal with the consequences of these accusations as we head into the start of the most promising season in three years for the Fish.