Prosecutors allege pitchers received thousands for winning wagers
Emmanuel Clase, the Cleveland Guardians’ former closer, and Luis Ortiz, a starter, are scheduled to begin a jury trial Monday in Brooklyn federal court. They face allegations that they accepted bribes and colluded with gamblers who made hundreds of thousands of dollars by betting correctly on individual pitches. Both pitchers have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges and are on nondisciplinary leave from the club without pay as their cases are heard. The trial is expected to unfold over the next month, with their careers and possibly their freedom at stake. Several professional baseball players, including catchers and baseball executives, are expected to testify.
Prosecutors’ allegations and the expected defense
According to an indictment, the pitchers accepted several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two gamblers from the pitchers’ native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches. Prosecutors allege that Clase began providing the bettors with information about his pitches in 2023 and recruited Ortiz into the scheme in 2025. Lawyers for Ortiz unsuccessfully sought to have Ortiz tried separately from Clase.
The pitchers have been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that the pitchers did not collude with gamblers and instead varied the placement of their pitches strategically to fool batters.
Court schedule and tax-evidence ruling
Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto said at a conference Friday that she hoped to complete jury selection quickly enough that lawyers could deliver relatively short opening statements in the afternoon.
On Friday, Matsumoto also ruled that prosecutors could not show the jury proof that Clase owed $500,000 in U.S. taxes. The judge said prosecutors had provided the evidence to defense lawyers several days earlier, long after the deadline for turning over evidence to their adversaries.
A prosecutor argued that the government wanted to present the tax evidence to offset any claim by Clase’s lawyers that he had no incentive to collude with gamblers because he had several million dollars in financial accounts in the Dominican Republic.
Pitchers’ careers and cooperation with authorities
Clase, 28, is a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year. He had completed the fourth season of a $20 million, five-year contract when the charges against the pitchers were revealed in November 2025. Ortiz, 27, had earned $782,600 as a starting pitcher for the Guardians during the 2025 season.
Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Guardians said they fully cooperated with authorities. MLB said it contacted federal law enforcement when it began investigating unusual betting activity.