CNA – or Focus Taiwan News Channel – is reporting that the Dodgers have confirmed singing Chin-hui Tsao of Taiwan to a minor league deal:

The Los Angeles Dodgers confirmed Tuesday that they have signed veteran Taiwanese pitcher Chin-hui Tsao, who was implicated in a game-fixing scandal in Taiwan five years ago, to a minor league contract.

“He (Chin-hui Tsao) has been signed to a minor league deal,” Joe Jareck, Dodgers’ public relations director, confirmed in response to an e-mail query from CNA.

CNA reports that Jareck declined to answer questions about whether the Dodgers are aware Tsao had been expelled in 2010 from the Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League over a game-fixing scandal (they are).

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports explains the expulsion:

An investigation reportedly found Tsao had accepted these “benefits” (sex, among them) and was expected to throw those two games during the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s 2009 season. One game was rained out. The other didn’t come off because of lack of support in the locker room. His punishment was limited to expulsion from the league. Presumably he was saved further legal consequences because of his own inability to predict the weather or the competitive temperaments of his teammates.

Tsao, 33, pitched for the Rockies from 2003-05 and the Dodgers in 2007. He pitched 50 big league games (started eight), with an ERA of 5.40.