Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer had several baseballs he used in yesterday’s game against the Oakland A’s sequestered and sent to MLB for inspection, per Ken Rosenthal. MLB sent out a memo in March threatening discipline against pitchers who added illegal substances to baseballs, and the Bauer balls were reported sticky and had markings on them.
This has been an ongoing issue for a while, as pitchers in recent years have widely been believed to have used substances to increase the spin rate on baseballs. Bauer carped publicly a couple of years ago about pitchers adding spin rate through such illicit methods, saying it was very easy to do, and then last year with the Cincinnati Reds saw his spin rate shoot up.