Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!
After over a decade in professional baseball and at age 31, A’s reliever Michael Kelly was finally gaining some traction in his big league career and establishing himself as a key piece in the Oakland bullpen. He probably didn’t see that happening in 2021, when he broke a cardinal rule of the sport and bet less than a Benjamin on baseball games in which he did not participate. Kelly was handed a one year suspension for the infraction.
Nobody is going to nominate Kelly for a MacArthur genius award for those wagers, but he was in the Astros system when these indiscretions took place, and it has become abundantly apparent in recent years that cheating is a mandatory rite of passage in Houston’s organization.