Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were placed on administrative leave in July while MLB investigated them for potentially violating the league's gambling policies. MLB was looking into whether or not Clase and Ortiz had been purposely throwing pitches out of the strike zone in specific situations for the sake of manipulating prop bets, and the evidence at the time, while circumstantial, didn't look good for either player. On Sunday, Ortiz and Clase were both charged with fraud, conspiracy, and bribery by the Department of Justice, which released a 23-page indictment that lays out a detailed case alleging that Clase and Ortiz were indeed at the center of a highly coordinated and lucrative betting scheme.
The DOJ alleges that between May 2023 and June 2025, Clase and Ortiz coordinated with at least two bettors in order to manipulate prop bets on specific pitches. According to the indictment, the unnamed bettors won at least $400,000 on these prop bets. The mechanics of the scheme as described by the indictment are relatively simple: The bettors, using multiple gambling platforms, would wager large sums of money that Clase's or Ortiz's first pitch of a specific inning would be a ball and would be under a certain speed. Ortiz and Clase would then start the inning off with a breaking pitch well outside of the strike zone, and the bettors would cash in.
How the rigged pitches were selected and when the bets were placed required quite a bit of coordination, according to the DOJ. The indictment describes several instances in which Clase communicated with the bettors during games in order to rig a prop bet:
For example, on or about May 17, 2025, the Cleveland Guardians played an MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds. The game began at approximately 6:40 p.m. At approximately 8:24 p.m., CLASE sent a text message to Bettor-1 asking if Bettor-1 was "ready." Bettor-1 responded, "[b]ut of course." Approximately ten minutes later, Bettor-1, Bettor-2, and several other Bettors won approximately $10,000 on Betting Platform-2 by placing multiple bets that a pitch thrown by CLASE would both be a Ball/HBP and would be slower than 97.95 mph.
The indictment describes another instance in which one of the bettors coordinated with Clase while in attendance at a Guardians game:
For example, on or about April 25, 2025, Bettor-1 traveled to Ohio and visited CLASE at his residence. CLASE obtained tickets for Bettor-1 to attend the Cleveland Guardians' MLB game the following day, April 26, 2025, against the Boston Red Sox. The game began at approximately 1:10 p.m. At approximately 3:16 p.m., in the middle of the game, CLASE sent a text message initiating a conversation with Bettor-1. A few seconds later, CLASE and Bettor-1 had a phone call that lasted approximately two minutes. Four minutes later, Bettor-1 and several of the Bettors won approximately $11,000 on Betting Platform-2 by wagering that a pitch thrown by CLASE would be slower than 97.95 mph. After the game on April 26, 2025, Bettor-1 visited CLASE at his residence.
The indictment describes Clase and the two unnamed bettors as the originators of the scheme, with Ortiz not joining until June 2025. The DOJ alleges that both Clase and Ortiz instructed the bettors to send portions of their winnings to individuals in the Dominican Republic, and to be careful about concealing the provenance and purpose of their wire transfers:
The following day, on or about April 13, 2025, the defendant EMMANUEL CLASE DE LA CRUZ asked Bettor-1 by text message whether Bettor-1 had
been able to "wager anything." After Bettor-1 responded, in sum and substance, that Bettor-1 had bet and won money, CLASE directed Bettor-1 to "send some of it to DR," referring to the Dominican Republic. CLASE provided Bettor-1 with contact information for a recipient for the money and directed Bettor-1 to "[s]end it as if it were someone else." CLASE also told Bettor-1 that the money was "for repairs at the country house."
The indictment describes Clase coaching Ortiz through a similar transfer, telling him to say that the money was for a horse:
On or about June 19, 2025, the defendant EMMANUEL CLASE DE LA CRUZ sent the defendant LUIS LEANDRO ORTIZ RIBERA a photograph of a receipt for a wire transfer of approximately 90,000 pesos from CLASE Associate-1 to ORTIZ Associate-1, as well as an audio message directing ORTIZ to cause his associates in the Dominican Republic to lie about the purpose of the funds ORTIZ was receiving if asked: '"They're going to ask him what is that payment for over there. Tell him that this is payment for a horse. Payment for a horse. You got that?" ORTIZ responded, "Okay, perfect."
There is one moment of levity in the indictment. The feds allege that one of the bettors would frequently use a prop bet on one of Clase's rigged pitches as one leg of a multi-bet parlay. The single time the bet missed was due to Andy Pages swinging at a first pitch in the dirt.
The indictment describes a postgame text message exchange between Clase and the bettor in which their disappointment at Pages's free-swinging could only be expressed via GIF:
Approximately 20 minutes after Bettor-1 lost the wager on May 28, 2025, Bettor-1 sent a text message to the defendant EMMANUEL CLASE DE LA CRUZ—a .gif image of a man hanging himself with toilet paper. Even though the Cleveland Guardians won the game, approximately 10 minutes later, CLASE responded to Bettor-1 with a .gif image of a sad puppy dog face.
It really is like that sometimes.
The full indictment can be read below:
