Clase and Ortiz face betting fraud trial over pitch allegations

Defense says Enoc Pena fabricated tips and coordinated losing bets

Prosecutors and defense lawyers put competing accounts before a jury Wednesday as a New York criminal fraud trial opened over allegations that Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz provided information about their pitches to gamblers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Urquiola told jurors in Brooklyn, “The defendants, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, are cheaters,” and said they “sold their pitches.”

According to Urquiola, Clase befriended sports betting gambler Enoc Pena in the Dominican Republic in early 2023. Pena shared Clase’s interest in dominoes and cockfighting, which is legal in his home country. Prosecutors said Clase eventually told “his new friend” what kinds of pitches he would throw in certain games, enabling gamblers to reap at least $460,000 on platforms that let customers bet on whether a pitch would be a ball or a strike.

Urquiola said Clase saw gamblers profiting from his pitches and “decided it wasn’t enough to help his friends make money,” then asked for kickbacks. Prosecutors said Clase began providing pitch information in 2023 and recruited Ortiz into the scheme in 2025. Prosecutors said text messages in which the pitchers described rigged pitches and bets, sometimes using code words such as “chicken” or “rooster,” along with testimony from some gamblers, would prove the government’s case.

Clase, the Guardians’ former star closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges and are on non-disciplinary leave from the club without pay. They were arrested in November 2025 and have remained free on bail since. 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 conspiracy and fraud charges against the pitchers were made public in November 2025. Ortiz, 27, earned $782,600 as a starting pitcher for the Guardians in 2025.

Michael Bronson, Clase’s attorney, said his client attended school until age 15 in a small coastal village in the Dominican Republic before focusing on baseball and becoming “a standout, a superstar” with a reputation for shutting down teams in the final inning of games. Bronson said Clase was 25 in spring 2023 when he met 41-year-old gambler Pena, who made more than 7,000 bets from 2023 to 2025 and had a history of lying to get what he wanted. “Pena didn’t see a peer, a friend. He saw a mark,” Bronson said.

Bronson said Pena soon brought Clase food and picked him up at the airport in the Dominican Republic, while Clase gave Pena tickets to Guardians games and loaned him money. According to the defense, Pena bragged to fellow gamblers that Clase was providing inside information and tried to sell that information, but was actually guessing which pitches Clase would throw. Bronson said Pena managed with fellow gamblers to lose over 200 bets on Clase’s pitches and was “selling lies.” He urged jurors to ask whether Clase would risk “a fortune and his lifelong dream over a few thousand dollars.”

Samuel Landes, Ortiz’s attorney, told jurors that Ortiz had no contact with gamblers and that only two of his pitches, both balls, were at stake in the trial. Landes asked Ortiz to stand as he introduced him to the jury, and Ortiz waved. “That’s not a conspiracy. That’s just baseball,” Landes said. He argued that Pena victimized Ortiz and that allegations Ortiz had accepted $5,000 for tips overlooked that Ortiz had received $1.7 million in advance for future contracts and stood to make millions more. “Why would Luis Ortiz throw all that away for $5,000? He would not,” Landes said.

Landes said Pena had struck a deal with prosecutors allowing him to avoid prison and remain in the United States despite lying to banks and about his marital status on immigration forms. Although Pena had once been listed as a possible witness, prosecutors said last week that they did not intend to put him on the witness stand.

The opening statements put the government’s case on pitch information, kickbacks, coded messages and gambler testimony. The defense put its case on Pena’s credibility, his false claims to other bettors and the deliberate losing bets he allegedly arranged. Both pitchers remain free on bail and on unpaid leave from the Guardians while the trial proceeds.