Source: Jose Valverde under review

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

Major League Baseball has reviewed video of Jose Valverde apparently throwing a spitball and has discussed the incident with the Detroit Tigers, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Valverde and the Tigers have not been given an official warning, but MLB's handling of the incident indicates a de facto warning.

An internet video showed Valverde putting his glove, with the ball in it, to his mouth before delivering a 1-2 pitch to Devin Mesoraco during the ninth inning of Sunday's 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Mesoraco swung and missed at the 94-mile per hour fastball.

"It's nothing. I never did anything wrong," Valverde said Tuesday. "I put my glove on my mouth, yeah. Why? Because I sweat too much. That's it."

Valverde said he saw the video and anticipated the media's reaction, laughing as a group of reporters approached him in the clubhouse.

"Everybody can say whatever they want to, but I wasn't doing anything wrong because I've never spit on the baseball," he said. "Everybody said what I was doing, but when you play in a stadium like that, Cincinnati is so hot. I sweat too much."

Valverde is 3-1 with 12 saves in 15 chances. He has a 3.91 ERA.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print
• Subscribe

Buster Olney | email

Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine

• Archive

• Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
• Analyst/reporter ESPN television
• Author of "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty"