Screenshot via YouTube

Jarred Cosart, 24-year-old pitcher for the Miami Marlins, may have unintentionally revealed that he bets on sports late Tuesday night.

There is an enormous network of handicappers, pickers and gamblers that use Twitter as a means of communication. Handicappers, and wannabe handicappers, as well as serious pickers and numerous scam artists, tweet out “free picks” to build their Twitter followings. The end game in giving out these “free picks” is to show their followers that they pick winners, oftentimes by providing falsified betting records, and eventually charge those followers money for “premium” picks, building a client base and making serious cash.

Below is a screenshot of an alleged direct message conversation between Cosart and one such Twitter picker that is being passed around like a particularly terrible strain of herpes.

The picker has obviously edited the screenshot to hide his part in the conversation. Why, exactly, is still unclear. However, the implication here, that Cosart messaged this picker to let him know that he put “LARGE” money on one of his free picks, is the opposite of good for Cosart’s career.

Major League Baseball does not like gamblers. Google “Pete Rose gambling” if you need a quick history on how the league handles such things.

Since the above screenshot began circulating, Cosart’s Twitter account went private, and, soon after, was completely deactivated, which certainly makes it seem like this is the real deal, and not just some massive hoax.

As a result of all this, the underground gambling world of Twitter is going bonkers. Some are even drawing the conclusion that Cosart was betting on his own games, and intentionally shaving points.

Now there's no way you can convince me he wasn't shaving runs on that 7ER/4 BB/0.1IP start pic.twitter.com/DAl8JzgRQD — Stevie (@TheHandicaper) March 25, 2015

24 balls in 39 pitches throwed, 4 walks, a wild pitch and gave up two HR's. Tell me you're not at least intrigued. pic.twitter.com/5b24LMQ5xw — Stevie (@TheHandicaper) March 25, 2015

Even better: the line for that game moved 40 cents on a -205 favorite early in the season. Not shady. AT. ALL. pic.twitter.com/1WLmgXtIcX — Stevie (@TheHandicaper) March 25, 2015

The tweet below is from August 1, 2014, stating that Cosart had given up a 1st inning run in 20 of his last 24 starts. That tweet is now being thrown around as evidence that Cosart was intentionally giving up runs.

For some perspective, below is a video of Cosart giving up 7 runs in the first inning of a 2014 matchup with the Oakland Athletics.

Now, keep in mind that this could still be a massive misunderstanding.

Cosart could’ve been messing around with the picker. He might not have direct messaged the picker at all. That screenshot could be doctored. His account could’ve been “hacked,” or whatever. I’m sure Major League Baseball will investigate, and we’ll find out what happened, one way or another, but this certainly doesn’t look good..

"My account got hacked" -150 "That screenshot is doctored" +120 — Ghostfade Killah (@ghostfadekillah) March 25, 2015

UPDATE: The morning after, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine what actually happened, or if there’s any truth to the accusations being thrown around. Shocker. It’s entirely possible that Cosart just freaked out and deleted his Twitter account because he was getting trolled hard by a group of Twitter gamblers that he obviously didn’t want to be associated with. It’s also possible that the direct message in question is dated based on Cosart’s avatar in the screenshot.

All in all, yes, it’s weird that Cosart was called out by a sports gambling Twitter account before getting full-on trolled by a network of them, making his Twitter account to private and then deleting it altogether, but no, none of this serves as proof that he bet on baseball. Obviously. He might’ve been betting on other sports, or not betting at all. All of that is yet to be determined, but the situation is certainly interesting enough to keep an eye on.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now someone claiming to be Cosart is tweeting from this account, addressing the situation: @CosartJL (annnd that account was just deleted).

Might’ve been Cosart himself, might’ve be a fraud chasing followers. The internet is Hell.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Based on another screenshot of a DM that’s circulating, at the very least, Cosart was betting on college basketball.

ANOTHER UPDATE: