As you’ll recall, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball last July while the league investigated charges that the two had rigged pitches as part of a gambling scheme. In fact, Ortiz was pulled from a planned start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field July 3 as this investigation began.
Sunday, news broke that these two pitchers have now been indicted for being part of an illegal gambling scheme. From Zack Meisel at The Athletic:
The two have been on paid leave from the league since July and now face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy related to a scheme to predetermine certain pitches that netted bettors hundreds of thousands in winnings.
Ortiz was arrested Sunday in Boston and will appear in court Monday. Clase was not in custody as of early Sunday afternoon; he is out of the country, according to a law enforcement source.
If convicted on all charges, the pitchers face up to 65 years in prison: 20 years for wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for honest services wire fraud conspiracy, five years for conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and 20 years for money laundering conspiracy.
You can read full details at the link, and you can see video of the Clase pitches alleged to have been rigged here and information on the pitches Ortiz allegedly rigged here.
This, obviously, is a big black eye for Major League Baseball, more than 100 years after the Black Sox scandal led to a “no gambling on baseball” rule posted in every clubhouse. In recent years, as you know, MLB signed deals with gambling companies after the Supreme Court legalized sports gambling in many states in 2018.
This has led to death threats against players and several players banned from MLB for various lengths of time in 2024, including a permanent ban for Pirates outfielder Tucupita Marcano.
What I’m having trouble wrapping my head around is why these Guardians pitchers did what they did. Both of them made at least several hundred thousand dollars as MLB salaries, and Clase had a $4.9 million deal for 2025 and was scheduled to make $6.4 million in 2026, with the Guardians holding $10 million options (with $2 million buyouts) for 2027 and 2028. The tens of thousands of dollars alleged to have been paid to these pitchers… man, that’s chump change compared to those figures, and Clase, who had been one of MLB’s best closers, could have been in line for a possible nine-figure contract had he hit free agency after 2026. I just don’t get it. Greed, I suppose, won out over common sense.
None of this is good for the sport. In addition to the death threats to players noted above, some players’ families have been threatened, notably the wife and children of Nick Wittgren, then also a Cleveland pitcher, in 2021:
Let’s just hope no one actually gets killed because of sports gambling.
In the meantime, baseball has to do something about this. They’re likely in too deep with the legal gambling outfits and make too much money to pull back, but perhaps cutting down a bit on the in-game ads might help, as well as not asking the actual on-air broadcasters to make picks during games. That can’t be good.
To wrap this up, I’ll just note the last line from the article in The Athletic linked above:
The Athletic has a commercial partnership with BetMGM.
