Hours after Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase arrived at New York’s JFK Airport and was taken into federal custody, he pled not guilty to four charges stemming from an alleged illegal gambling scheme. Clase pled through an interpreter, and was released on $600,000 bond secured by property he owns in Cleveland, and partly by his agent, Kelvin Nola, according to a Department of Justice email update.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York late last week charged Clase and teammate Luis Ortiz with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. Both face up to 65 years in prison, as three of the charges come with 20-year maximum sentences.
Clase was in the Dominican Republic when the indictment was unsealed Sunday, but it seemed clear during the week that federal prosecutors had been in contact with him and expected him to appear Thursday. According to a notice from the U.S. Attorney’s office at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, FBI agents arrested Clase at the airport upon arrival and headed to the courthouse.
Per the DOJ, Clase’s “conditions of release include location monitoring, travel restricted to NYC, Long Island, and Ohio, and a prohibition from engaging in any form of gambling.” The next court date for both Clase and Ortiz is Dec. 2 before U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.
Clase, cock fighting, and confusion
It’s not clear if Clase added a statement to his plea, but Wednesday, Deportivo editor Hector Gomez posted on social media site X that Clase’s texts collected by federal prosecutors referred to cock fighting rather than rigged pitching.
Gomez wrote that journalist Luis Hernandez, speaking on behalf of Clase, told another journalist, Frank Camilo, that “Emmanuel Clase understands calls about roosters were confused with sports betting.
“According to Hernández, Clase directly told him that his messages and calls about ‘the rooster play’ were possibly mistakenly taken ‘as coded calls’ related to sports betting.
“He told me [Clase to Hernández]: ‘Luis, look, they understand that when I called to ask Endy how the roosters had done, that was like a coded call and I obviously sent him money so he could take care of them, feed the roosters and honor other commitments’.”
Indictment unsealed Sunday
The Clase and Ortiz indictment alleged that Clase had been involved in a scheme to throw balls instead of strikes at certain times and alert co-conspirators so they could wager on the pitches. The setup started in April 2023 and lasted 26 months. In June 2025, Clase brought Ortiz into the plot, and a month later, Major League Baseball put both players on “non-disciplinary leave” and opened an investigation. Federal authorities had already opened their own investigation.
Ortiz, who was taken into custody at Boston’s Logan International Airport Sunday, pled not guilty Wednesday.
According to the indictment, Clase agreed to or arranged to deliver rigged pitches in at least 11 MLB games between the Cleveland Guardians and at least 10 different teams. His involvement in the scheme spanned his most successful seasons — among other accolades, Clase was the American League Reliever of the Year and saves leader in 2024.
In some cases, Clase was paid for the rigged pitches, and in others, he sent money to co-conspirators to place bets on his own performance. Per Major League Baseball’s Rule 21, betting on the game or your own performance in it is a violation of league rules that will result in a lifetime ban. As of Thursday, Clase and Ortiz remained suspended, and MLB had not taken any further action.
On May 28, 2025, Clase allegedly attempted to throw a ball, but it resulted in a strike because the batter swung, causing a co-conspirator to lose a $4,000 bet. The Guardians beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4, that day, and Clase got the save. But he sent a “sad puppy dog face” GIF to the bettor who lost.
Prop bets under fire
The bets made by co-conspirators on legal betting platforms are known as “prop bets,” which have been at the top of the news since the NBA betting scandal that broke in late October. Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and co-conspirators allegedly attempted to manipulate his on-court performance and cash in on “under” props. In response, on Monday, Major League Baseball and major sportsbook operators announced a cap on pitching prop bets.
Thursday, news broke that the NFL is reportedly considering banning or limiting prop bets.
Wednesday, high-profile sports agent Scott Boras called for a ban on prop bets. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on July 31 told the Ohio Casino Control Commission to “correct this problem and remove all prop bets from the Ohio marketplace.”
Per ESPN, Boras told reporters, “You have to remove those prop bets to make sure that the integrity of the players is not questioned, because there’s going to be all forms of performance questions given now to pitchers and such when they throw certain pitches to the back of the screen, or situationally, and really, we don’t want any part of it.”
