Yasiel Puig has not appeared in a Major League Baseball game since Sept. 27, 2019, when he went hitless for the Cleveland Indians in an 8-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.
Following Puig's appearance in U.S. District Court in California Tuesday regarding his association with an illegal sports betting operation, he may never wear an MLB uniform again. Puig appeared in a Los Angeles federal courthouse, one day after documents unsealed by the U.S. Justice Department indicated that he had agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to law enforcement officials about sports bets he made with an illegal operator.
Puig, 31, is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 23, when he is expected to formally enter a guilty plea to the charge, a Justice Department spokesman told on Tuesday night.
Under the agreement signed Aug. 29, Puig is expected to plead guilty to making a false statement within the jurisdiction of a federal law enforcement agency, a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. A subsequent sentencing hearing could be held in the first quarter of 2023, the spokesman added. Puig, a one-time All-Star with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has also agreed to pay a fine of at least $55,000.
Yasiel Puig Plea Outlines Lies to Feds in Illegal MLB Betting Probe https://t.co/6VCG7GiGfn via @Sportico #sportsbetting #insidertrading
— Bob Roble (@SportsTechieNET) November 15, 2022
“Under our system of justice, no one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “The integrity of our nation's criminal justice system depends on people telling the truth, and those who fail to abide by this simple principle must face consequences.”
Puig has not been accused of placing wagers on Major League Baseball games as an active MLB player.
When asked by if MLB is confident that Puig refrained from placing wagers on league games during the 2019 season, a league spokesman declined comment on Wednesday morning. Major League Baseball has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
Almost 900 wagers placed in three months
In May 2019, Puig started to place wagers on sports through a third-party agent who worked on behalf of an illegal gambling business run by Wayne Nix, a California resident, according to court documents.
Nix, a former pitcher in the Oakland A’s farm system, pled guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business. Sometime after Nix ended his minor league baseball career in 2001, he started an illegal bookmaking business in the Los Angeles area, prosecutors say. Nix used a series of agents to place and accept bets for the so-called Nix Gambling Business, facilitating the wagers through Sand Island Sports, a Costa Rica company.