Former Major League Baseball pitcher Mike Bolsinger had his lawsuit against the Houston Astros dismissed by a judge in California Thursday.
Bolsinger filed the lawsuit in February 2020. He filed the case shortly after the Astros sign-stealing scandal came out. In the suit, he said the Astros scandal dealt irreparable damage to his MLB career. He gave up four earned runs while getting only one out in an August game against the Astros. This rough outing ended up being his final appearance of his major league career.
The 33-year-old was 8-19 with a 4.92 ERA across four MLB seasons with three teams. In his final year, he played for the Toronto Blue Jays. Although he pitched in 11 games that year, spanning 41 1/3 innings, he gave up 29 earned runs.
Lawsuit against Astros Dismissed
According to The Athletic‘s Daniel Kaplan, Judge David Cowan of the Los Angeles Superior Court didn’t believe the lawsuit had merit. “If that’s sufficient to sustain jurisdiction in California, it would be sufficient to sustain jurisdiction in any state of the United States that has an American League team,” Cowan said.
Judge Cowan believed Bolsinger chose to file the lawsuit in California in an effort to take advantage of hard feelings towards Houston. The Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. According to Kaplan, Bolsinger plans on re-filing the lawsuit in Texas by the middle of May. Whether he succeeds remains to be seen, but his efforts will seemingly continue.
The Astros scandal spawned numerous lawsuits from a variety of sources. Additionally, daily fantasy baseball players filed a lawsuit against the team. A judge dismissed this suit as well. The lawsuit that gained the most media attention came from Jeff Luhnow, Houston’s former general manager. The Astros fired Luhnow as a part of the scandal fallout. The former general manager believed his firing came from a deal between Commissioner Rob Manfred and owner Jim Crane that allowed Houston to keep its World Series title. Once again, the lawsuit against the Astros was dismissed. However, the case was dismissed after the sides reached an agreement on a settlement.
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
