Overview
- A USA Today investigation, published Thursday, tied Dodgers reliever Edwin Díaz and jockeys Jose and Irad Ortiz to cockfighting in Puerto Rico through Facebook ads, photos and videos.
- Promotional graphics showed Díaz in his Dodgers uniform advertising tournaments, and a March El Nuevo Día article pictured him in a pit and quoted him saying his family entered four roosters.
- USA Today also cited video of the Ortiz brothers handling cash inside a ring and a December 2025 post listing them as entrants in a “Caribbean Grand Champion” event.
- Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming said stewards met with the Ortiz brothers and took no administrative action, while no criminal charges or MLB or Dodgers discipline have been announced.
- Federal law has banned cockfighting in all U.S. states and territories since 2019, the Supreme Court let that stand in 2021, and penalties can reach five years for participants and one year for spectators, even as the practice retains cultural roots in Puerto Rico.