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Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander Named in Lawsuit Involving Illegal Ball-Doctoring Substances

Pitchers trying to get an edge with substances has been a thing as long as baseball has been played. They put anything they can find on the ball to give them the slightest edge. This is not new at all. Even modern day pitchers are reportedly doing the same thing. Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole is one of several star pitchers who were named in a lawsuit for using illegal ball-doctoring substances provided by a former visiting Angels clubhouse manager.


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Bubba Harkins  was fired back in March 2020 after MLB found evidence he was providing banned substances to pitchers to enhance their grip on the baseball. He filed a defamation suit against the Angels and MLB in August. Now some of his texts are being revealed.

Via Los Angeles Times:

“Hey Bubba, it’s Gerrit Cole, I was wondering if you could help me out with this sticky situation,” the pitcher, then with the Astros, wrote on Jan. 17, 2019, adding a wink emoji, according to the reports. “We don’t see you until May, but we have some road games in April that are in cold weather places. The stuff I had last year seizes up when it gets cold.”

Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and several other prominent pitchers have been named.

Harkins’ lawsuit claims that his firing has left him unemployable.

Apparently in baseball if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.


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