On July 28, 2025, with the Cleveland Guardians nine games behind the Detroit Tigers for the lead in the American League Central Division and on their way to an eventual win of the AL Central, the Guardians’ star closer, Emmanuel Clase, was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave by Major League Baseball for the suspicion of gambling on the game of baseball. Clase followed Guardians pitcher Luis L. Ortiz to the list, who was placed on non-disciplinary leave on July 3. Both wouldn’t be reinstated for the rest of the season, and both would have their lives turned upside down in only a matter of months. No one saw this scandal coming, and many were left wondering the same question: what happened that caused the first major betting scandal in Major League Baseball in years?
It had to be small enough so the average person watching baseball wouldn’t know the game was rigged. Allegedly, beginning in 2023, Clase would text bettors prior to his pitching appearance what the first pitch of an at-bat would be. For example, in the earliest known instance of the “pitch-rigging” in a game on May 19, 2023, against the New York Mets on the road, Clase informed betters that his first pitch would be above 94.4 miles per hour. According to prosecutors, bettors won $27,000 on that fastball on May 19.
Ortiz joined the scheme in June of 2025. He threw the first pitch of the second inning of a game against the Seattle Mariners for a ball, which Ortiz was paid $5,000 to throw. The Mariners scored five runs in that inning, and the Guardians lost the game 6-0. Clase was paid $5,000 to organize the rigging between Ortiz and the bettors. Later, when Ortiz was paid, Clase directed him to lie about the funds if asked where he got them from. Clase told Ortiz to say the money was “for a horse,” and Ortiz replied in agreement.
Ortiz was placed on leave first, followed by Clase. Ortiz was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts at Logan International Airport on Nov. 9 on charges of fraud, money laundering, bribery and the conspiracy of rigging sporting events. Clase was arrested on Nov. 13 in Queens, New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport upon arrival from his native Dominican Republic. He was arrested on similar charges.
Both pleaded not guilty, but if they are convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for honest service and wire fraud count, five years for the conspiracy to rig sporting events by bribery and 20 years for money laundering conspiracy. Both are due back in court on December 2.
Clase and Ortiz earned their bettors over $400,000 in bets from the rigged pitches. The shocking development was the amount of money that was made. While $400,000 is a lot of money, the average salary of a Major League Baseball player was $4.66 million in 2024, so it is hard to imagine a scenario in which the rigging and possible prison time are worth the money the players made off their bettors—money of which Ortiz and Clase only got a percentage.
In 2025, Clase’s salary was $4.9 million, which is considered a bargain for a closer who finished third in AL Cy Young voting in 2024 and won the Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year award twice.
Ortiz made about $783,000 in 2025, and was eligible for arbitration in 2026, with three years remaining on his rookie contract. Based on how much money functional pitchers can make in free agency, Ortiz and his 4.03 career ERA were headed for a multi-million dollar pay day in the future.
There has been no punishment issued from Major League Baseball yet, but both are likely to be staring at the dreaded lifetime ban from MLB games, activities and the hall of fame, which Clase may have had a chance of making. The last player to receive the lifetime ban was the former Pittsburgh Pirate and San Diego Padre Tucupita Marcano for placing over 400 bets on baseball during his career.
If the lifetime ban sounds familiar, it’s because baseball commissioner Rob Manfred recently lifted the lifetime ban on 17 banned players, including the infamous Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader, famously had a gambling addiction and gambled on baseball while he managed the Cincinnati Reds, although he claims he never gambled against his Reds in his autobiography “My Prison Without Bars.” Jackson was a member of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox, who rigged their World Series against the Reds so they would lose. This went down in history as the Chicago Black Sox Scandal.
Gambling scandals have been in the news a lot recently, with there being a massive gambling scandal in the National Basketball Association that surfaced in October. Allegedly, Portland Trailblazers’ coach Chauncey Billups, Cleveland Cavaliers’ assistant coach Damon Jones and Miami Heat player Terry Rozier were arrested on accusations of being involved in illegal sports gambling and rigged poker games that were backed by the mafia.
This was also not Clase’s first run in with trouble during his time in the MLB. During the shortened 2020 season, Clase was forced to serve an 80-game suspension for the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs while he was with the Texas Rangers.
Clase had been floated as someone the Guardians might look to trade at the 2025 trade deadline, and he would have had a lot of suitors. Teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers all were in the market for a lockdown closer or reliever at the trade deadline, and based on Clase’s performance and low contract, the Guardians easily would have gotten two of the top-10 prospects from any teams farm system. Clase cost the Guardians some prospects that would help them win in the future, even though he didn’t cost them the AL Central title.
The bets the bettors were placing on the pitcher, called “micro-bets,” are a form of a proposition bet, or a “prop” bet. A prop bet is a bet that is on a specific player or team performance, not on a win or loss, and micro-bets are bets on a single outcome during a specific period during a game, like the outcome of a specific pitch to a specific batter during a specific inning. For instance, throwing a pitching 94.5 miles per hour faster to start the top of the ninth inning.
These recent gambling scandals have raised questions about the integrity of sporting events, the safety of players, and how gambling sites and professional sports leagues can manage tracking these micro-bets to prevent scandals and rigged games.
Recently, sportsbooks around the country have banned micro-bets from parlays to reduce the risk of manipulation and have added a nationwide limit of $200 on pitch outcome micro-bets. However, since these changes had been put in place, Manfred says no other major changes to gambling on baseball will be made at this time.
Some argue that micro-bets shouldn’t even be legal, and that having betting on a single outcome of a pitch is too tempting for some players and bettors who would back the players. Plus, with the popularity of sports gambling booming due to the easy access to gambling apps like DraftKings, Fanduel and Bet MGM, players are finding their safety comprised. Many are receiving death threats towards themselves and their families after deficient performances. In a letter to Manfred, the Senate Commerce Committee called it. gambling sports’ “new integrity crisis.”
Sentencing for Ortiz and Clase is expected in the coming weeks, following their mandated court appearance on December 2.
