MLB fans are screaming Dodgers favoritism after Edwin Díaz cockfighting drama

On Tuesday, Josh Peter of USA Today reported that the publication had found evidence of Kentucky Derby jockeys Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz Jr.'s involvement in an illegal cockfighting ring in Puerto Rico. The Dodgers' Edwin Díaz was also connected, with mountains of evidence to back it up.

The Puerto Rico Cockfighting Club posted advertisements on Facebook bearing Díaz's image. El Nuevo Día also posted a picture of Díaz in the pit at a cockfighting event in March. He said, "It's a pastime I've followed since I was a child. It's legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

It is, in fact, not legal in Puerto Rico. The United States instituted a ban on the practice in 2019 that applied to all 50 states and Puerto Rico, but it's since continued in the latter, with "authorities and residents [saying] the fights began 400 years ago and are culturally significant."

It's seems unlikely that Díaz will be penalized for his involvement, but baseball fans are taking less exception to that than they are to the fact that the story hasn't taken off with more major US publications.

Dodgers' Edwin Díaz connected to cockfighting ring in Puerto Rico (with mountains of evidence)

The current federal punishment if found guilty of participating in or spectating cockfighting is five years in prison with a fine and one year with a fine, respectively. According to the initially referenced article from El Nuevo Día, Díaz's family entered four roosters in March. In an earlier article from 2018, Díaz himself entered five.

The extent to which Díaz's image was used to advertised these events is a little shocking, but it does seem to indicate that no one involved fears federal or local legal intervention. Puerto Rico's politicians have pushed back on federal rulings.

Even more fans are going as far as to say that this is a continuation of MLB coverups in favor of the Dodgers, pointing to the Shohei Ohtani/Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal. Those people can mostly be ignored — there is no evidence against Ohtani and literal hundreds of federal court documents against Mizuhara — but we'll allow that it's strange the story has yet to be picked up by more major oulets.

Major US sports publications like ESPN and The Athletic have yet to publish anything relating to Díaz's involvement. Díaz, unsurprisingly, declined comment to USA Today, as did the Dodgers and MLB.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow