Washington Nationals shortstop, CJ Abrams, was recently demoted to the team’s Triple-A squad after a late-night excursion to a Chicago casino preceded a poor performance the following day.
Out of Luck
The Washington Nationals’ 23-year-old All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams made an ill-fated Thursday night trip to Bally’s Casino while he was in the Windy City for a date with the Cubs the following afternoon. According to reports, Abrams shared his visit to the gambling den in a post on X, which caught the attention of the front office, particularly after they learned he had left the casino at approximately 8:00 the following morning with the game starting only five hours later.
Abrams reported to Wrigley Field for the second game of a four-game set with the Cubs but fared poorly, going 0-for-3, including a strikeout in the team’s 3-1 loss on Friday. It wasn’t long afterward that general manager Mike Rizzo made the call to demote Abrams to the Triple-A Rochester. Because Rochester’s season is over, he will spend the rest of the season at the Nationals’ minor league complex in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Although we do not know how the young shortstop fared at the casino, we do know that the demotion will take a $30,000 bite out of his $750,000 salary for missing the remaining eight games of the season. However, because Abrams exceeded the 172 games on the Nats’ MLB roster, he could fight the loss in salary through the Major League Player’s Union.
“I just want it to be known it wasn’t performance-based,’’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters before Saturday’s game. “It’s an internal issue. I’m not going to get into specifics or talk specifics because I need to keep everything on the down-low. I’ve got other guys out there I want to support.
“I’m going to support C.J. He’s a big part of our Nats family, and he will be. But without getting into any details, this was the right thing to do.”
Martinez went on to reiterate that Abrams remains part of the team’s future, saying, “For me, it’s about taking care of the person first, and not the player, and I’m going to do everything I can to help him. I love the kid. He’s a good kid. He’s going to be back.”
MLB Leery of Gambling
Although Abrams did not technically breach the league’s gambling policy, which prohibits players, coaches, managers, umpires, and other league and club officials from betting on MLB games, the specter of gambling looms large in all North American professional sports.
Major League Baseball has had five incidents of sports betting violations this season, with the most severe being San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano, who placed nearly 400 bets on MLB games and received a lifetime ban in June.
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
Manfred also announced one-year suspensions for four other players, including Oakland A’s veteran pitcher Michael Kelly and minor leaguers Jay Groome, Jose Rodriguez, and Andrew Saalfrank.
