As they await trial for an alleged pitch-rigging scheme, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were transferred to unpaid non-disciplinary leave Friday following an agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
Previously, the pitchers were on paid non-disciplinary leave. They have pleaded not guilty to multiple conspiracy charges for allegedly receiving money to throw pitches for balls intentionally to benefit gamblers who wagered on individual pitches being balls or strikes.
“As the legal proceedings involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz continue to move forward, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed that both players will remain on non-disciplinary leave from the Club without pay until further notice,” MLB said in a statement. “This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz. MLB has been closely monitoring the matter since alerting federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and will have no further comment until its investigation has been completed.”
Clase’s $6.4 million salary in 2026 is part of a five-year, $20 million contract extension signed in April 2022. Because he has yet to reach arbitration, Ortiz’s expected salary would be near the major league minimum of $780,000.
With cases in which legal proceedings are not completed, MLB typically avoids issuing discipline in the form of suspensions or bans. The move from paid to unpaid leave, however, comes in the wake of the evidence thus far presented in the Eastern District of New York’s case against the two.
Clase, 28, and Ortiz, 27, pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting events by bribery. The top charges carry a potential punishment of up to 20 years in prison. Their trial is scheduled for the fall, with jury selection beginning Nov. 2.
In the initial indictment, unsealed last November, federal prosecutors alleged that Clase threw rigged pitches in nine games. Ortiz’s attorney wrote in a February filing, however, that the government is accusing Clase of manipulating his performance in at least 48 games, beginning in 2023 through the 2025 season.
In a separate court hearing, attorneys for Clase said they had identified “at least 250 pitches on which bets were placed” and asked the government to disclose discovery on any additional pitches alleged to be part of the conspiracy.
The original 23-page indictment outlined a scheme allegedly perpetrated starting in 2023 by Clase, who prosecutors said regularly threw balls instead of strikes on the first pitch of at-bats and would also change his pitch selection to go over or under a set velocity. Bettors would wager on the pitches and include them in parlays, with Clase providing money for them to gamble on his behalf, according to the indictment.
On May 19, 2023, prosecutors said, Clase told bettors involved in the alleged scheme that he would throw a pitch faster than 94.95 mph, with winnings of $27,000. A parlay weeks later combined a pitch slower than 94.95 mph with the pitch going for a call, netting bettors $38,000 when Clase buried a slider at least 5 feet in front of home plate.
By April 2025, Clase “requested and received bribe and kickback payments in exchange for agreeing to throw specific pitches,” according to the indictment. Clase, prosecutors said, once asked a bettor for proceeds for a successful wager to be sent to the Dominican Republic — where he, Ortiz and the bettor are from — “for repairs at the country house.”
One of the best relief pitchers in baseball, Clase brought Ortiz into the scheme after he joined the Guardians in a trade before the 2025 season, according to prosecutors.
Ortiz’s involvement started June 15, 2025, according to the indictment, when he agreed with Clase that he would throw the first pitch of the second inning for a ball and receive $5,000, with Clase getting $5,000 for arranging it. When Ortiz received a payment of 90,000 Dominican pesos — approximately $1,400 — Clase told Ortiz to say “this payment is for a horse” if asked about it, according to prosecutors.
The allegations against Clase and Ortiz led to MLB requesting that sportsbooks place restrictions on betting markets involving individual pitches. In an effort to disincentivize similar schemes, MLB asked that betting limits on individual pitches be capped at $200 and that those types of wagers be prohibited from being included in parlays to prevent escalated payouts.
ESPN’s David Purdum contributed to this report.
