Cleveland Guardians pitchers indicted in connection to sports gambling investigation
Pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were charged on Sunday, officials said.
Two Major League Baseball pitchers allegedly conspired with sports bettors to rig pitches they threw so the bettors would profit from illegal wagers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the FBI announced in an indictment on Sunday.
Cleveland Guardians player Luis Leandro Ortiz was arrested Sunday at Logan Airport in Boston. Emmanuel Clase, also of the Guardians, was not yet in custody as of Sunday afternoon.
According to the indictment, the pitchers started conspiring with sports bettors in 2023 on specific pitches they would throw during MLB games. The bettors then used that information to place prop bets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the indictment says.
The bettors wagered on the speed and type of Clase’s pitches based on information they knew in advance by coordinating with Clase, sometimes even during MLB games, prosecutors said. Clase often threw these allegedly rigged pitches on the first pitch of an at-bat, investigators said. To ensure certain pitches were called as balls, Clase threw many of them in the dirt, well outside the strike zone, according to investigators.
In exchange, Clase received bribes and kickbacks, prosecutors said.
The indictment includes numerous examples of pitches that Clase allegedly rigged, including one in a game against the New York Mets. In total, by rigging pitches, Clase caused his co-conspirator bettors to win at least $400,000 in fraudulent wagers, according to investigators.
Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme in 2025, according to the indictment, and allegedly agreed in advance to throw balls instead of strikes on pitches in two games in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. Before an MLB game on June 15, 2025, Ortiz agreed with his co-conspirators to throw a ball on a particular pitch in exchange for bribes, the indictment alleges. The bettors agreed to pay Ortiz a $5,000 bribe for throwing the rigged pitch and Clase a $5,000 bribe for arranging the rigged pitch, also according to the indictment.
“Through this scheme, the defendants defrauded betting platforms, deprived Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Guardians of their honest services, illegally enriched themselves and their co-conspirators, misled the public, and betrayed America's pastime,” the indictment said.
“MLB contacted federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and has fully cooperated throughout the process," Major League Baseball said in a statement Sunday. "We are aware of the indictment and today's arrest, and our investigation is ongoing.”
The Cleveland Guardians said in a separate statement Sunday that the team is "aware of the recent law enforcement action" and that they will "continue to fully cooperate with both law enforcement and Major League Baseball as their investigations continue."
Chris Georgalis, the Cleveland-based attorney for Ortiz, said in a statement to ABC News that the pitcher is "innocent of the charges related to two pitches he threw" and that he has "never, and would never, improperly influence a game."
Georgalis added that the indictment "completely lacks any alleged evidence connecting Luis to these alleged bettors or demonstrating any purposeful involvement in a scheme," and that "the government’s case is weak and circumstantial."
"There is no credible evidence Luis knowingly did anything other than try to win games, with every pitch and in every inning. Luis looks forward to fighting these charges in court," the statement said.
In July, Clase -- the fourth-best closer in the league -- was placed on non-disciplinary leave through Aug. 31 for his alleged role in the betting probe, weeks after Ortiz was placed on the same leave, according to ESPN.
The news of this MLB betting probe comes after the Department of Justice recently unsealed an indictment accusing three current and former National Basketball Association coaches and players of participating in an illegal sports gambling scheme.
A source familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the case against Clase and Ortiz is not connected to the NBA indictment, and is also separate from Friday's NCAA disclosure about six former college basketball players accused of allegedly rigging games.
The criminal investigations into Clase and Ortiz began after betting platforms noticed unusual activity during certain games or moments and/or after referrals from various professional sports leagues, the source told ABC News.
ABC News' Kelly McCarthy and Nic Uff contributed to this report.