MLB Pitch-Rigging Case: Clase and Ortiz Charges, Pleas, and Trial

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase face federal pitch-rigging charges in the Eastern District of New York, accused of throwing specific pitches on cue so gamblers could win “microbets” on the outcome of individual pitches. A grand jury indicted both men on four counts each in November 2025, both pleaded not guilty, and trial is now set for November 2, 2026.¹

What They’re Charged With

Each pitcher faces four counts: wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy.² The indictment was unsealed on November 9, 2025 and carries a theoretical maximum of 65 years if a defendant were convicted on all counts and sentenced consecutively.³ The case is docketed as No. 25-CR-346 before Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn federal court.

The Department of Justice identified the primary victims of the alleged fraud as sports betting platforms, the Cleveland Guardians, and Major League Baseball.⁴

How the Alleged Scheme Worked

The case turns on a relatively new category of sports wager. A “microbet” pays out on the outcome of a single pitch: whether it will be a ball or a strike, whether it will hit a batter, or whether it will exceed a certain velocity. Prosecutors allege the pitchers agreed in advance with co-conspirators to throw specific types of pitches at specific speeds, and the co-conspirators then placed bets on those exact outcomes.³

Some communications allegedly happened by text message during games, with the pitchers using their cell phones to coordinate in real time.⁵ The indictment refers to unnamed “co-conspirators” and “bettors,” some based in the Dominican Republic. No individual bettor has been publicly charged by name.⁶

What Each Pitcher Is Accused of Doing

Emmanuel Clase

Clase is alleged to have been involved since May 2023, making him the longer-running participant. Prosecutors say he tipped an unnamed bettor to details such as throwing a slider on the first pitch or keeping his velocity under 95 mph.⁴ On May 19, 2023, Clase allegedly told associates he would throw a pitch faster than 94.95 mph, and the accomplices won $27,000.⁷ In a June 2023 game against the Minnesota Twins, he allegedly threw an intentional ball into the dirt as part of the arrangement. In total, prosecutors say his conduct generated at least $400,000 in fraudulent winnings for the co-conspirators.⁸

The indictment also casts Clase as a financial middleman. He allegedly withdrew $50,000 on one occasion and handed $15,000 of it to a co-conspirator to fund bets on a rigged pitch.⁹ Prosecutors say he sent Ortiz a receipt for a wire transfer of roughly 90,000 Dominican pesos (about $4,900) and instructed him to have associates in the Dominican Republic describe the payment as being “for a horse” to conceal its purpose.⁴

Luis Ortiz

Ortiz’s alleged involvement is narrower and later. Prosecutors say Clase recruited him in June 2025, and the indictment focuses on two games.³

On June 15, 2025, against the Seattle Mariners, Ortiz allegedly agreed to throw his first pitch of the second inning for a ball in exchange for $5,000 from Clase. The pitch was an 86.7 mph slider that bounced, thrown to Randy Arozarena, and two co-conspiring bettors allegedly won about $26,000.¹⁰ On June 27, against the St. Louis Cardinals, Ortiz allegedly threw another first-pitch slider well outside the strike zone at the start of the third inning, with each player receiving $7,000.⁹ Prosecutors say bets tied to Ortiz’s rigged pitches generated at least $60,000 for the co-conspirators.¹¹

How It Was Caught

The betting-integrity firm IC360 first flagged the activity. In June 2025, IC360 alerted sportsbook operators to unusually high microbet volume tied to the first pitch of specific innings in Ortiz’s starts, particularly wagers that the pitch would be a ball or a hit-by-pitch. The suspicious bets had been placed in Ohio, New Jersey, and New York.¹²

MLB reviewed video of the flagged plays and said it observed unusually high in-game betting activity during games in April, May, and June 2025.¹⁰ On July 28, 2025, the league placed both pitchers on indefinite non-disciplinary paid leave and alerted federal law enforcement. The FBI then took over the criminal investigation.¹³

Arrests, Pleas, and Bail

Ortiz was arrested by the FBI at Boston’s Logan International Airport on November 9, 2025, the same day the indictment was unsealed. He was released on a $500,000 bond with conditions that included surrendering his passport, restricted travel, a gambling prohibition, and no contact with co-defendants or witnesses. He was placed in the custody of his wife.¹⁴ Ortiz pleaded not guilty at his formal arraignment in Brooklyn federal court on November 12, 2025.¹⁵

Clase was in the Dominican Republic when the indictment came down. His attorney Michael Ferrara said he chose to fly voluntarily to New York rather than wait for extradition, and FBI agents arrested him at JFK Airport on November 13, 2025.¹⁶ He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo that day, pleaded not guilty through a Spanish interpreter, and was released on a $600,000 bond secured in part by his agent Kelvin Nova.¹⁷ Judge Marutollo ordered GPS monitoring over defense objection, citing Clase’s financial status and ties to the Dominican Republic as flight-risk factors, and stated on the record that he believed the evidence against Clase was strong.¹⁸

The Defense

The two defendants are pointing in different directions. Ortiz’s attorney Christos Georgalis has moved to sever the cases, arguing Ortiz was “a victim of Clase’s scheme, rather than a knowing and willing participant” and that a likely defense is that Clase passed Ortiz’s pitching information to bettors without Ortiz’s knowledge. Georgalis has stressed the difference in scale: Clase’s allegations involve nine suspicious pitches over two years, while Ortiz is accused of rigging only two.¹⁹ Clase’s team has agreed to the severance request, but Judge Matsumoto has not yet ruled.¹

Ferrara has called the prosecution a “rush to judgment” based on “flawed views of the evidence” and said Clase looks forward to clearing his name at trial.²⁰

Trial Date and Current Status

Trial was originally set for May 4, 2026. In March 2026, Judge Matsumoto pushed jury selection to November 2, 2026. Both defendants remain free on bail.¹

Neither player has been suspended or banned by MLB. In March 2026, the league and the players’ union agreed to shift Clase and Ortiz from paid administrative leave to unpaid non-disciplinary leave for the 2026 season, a move MLB said “is not an admission of any wrongdoing” by either player.²¹ MLB has said its own investigation will remain open until the legal process concludes.²²

Changes to Pitch-Level Betting

On November 10, 2025, MLB announced that sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market had agreed to cap all pitch-level wagers at $200 and to exclude pitch-level bets from parlays, effective immediately.²³ Commissioner Rob Manfred said the pitch-level markets were “particularly vulnerable to integrity concerns” because they focus on individual events a single player can control.²⁴ FanDuel and DraftKings were among the participating operators. Players’ union head Tony Clark went further, expressing support for eliminating prop bets entirely.²⁵

Congress has also taken an interest. On November 17, 2025, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell sent Manfred a formal letter demanding documents about when and how MLB discovered the alleged pitch-rigging and why it went undetected for roughly two years. The senators, who had sent a similar letter to the NBA in October about a separate betting scandal, said the pattern pointed to a “deeper, systemic vulnerability” across professional sports.²⁶

1
WTVB AM. Trial of Guardians Pitchers Moved to November
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Two Current Major League Baseball Players Charged With Sports Betting and Money Laundering
3
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