Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase & Luis Ortiz allegedly involved in gambling scheme | SportsCenter

Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase & Luis Ortiz allegedly involved in gambling scheme | SportsCenter

As we’ve seen recently in the NBA, the intersection of sports and gambling is more fraught and susceptible to scandal than ever. And now this from Major League Baseball. Guardians pitchers Emanuel Class and Luis Ortiz have been charged with fraud, conspiracy, and rigging pitches. Prosecutors said in the indictment that Class and Ortiz threw specific pitches for balls so betterers could place prop bets and profit. Both pitchers have been on paid leave while MLB investigated. Ortiz was arrested by the FBI Sunday morning in Boston. He will appear in court on Monday. Class was not in custody as of Sunday afternoon. US Attorney Joseph Velis said in a statement, “The defendants deprived the Cleveland Guardians and Major League Baseball of their honest services. They defrauded the online betting platforms where the bets were placed. And they betrayed America’s pastime. Integrity, honesty, and fair play are part of the DNA of professional sports. When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants, but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us. Our baseball insider Jeff Pass joins us now. So Jeff, when a baseball legend like Pete Rose gets a lifetime ban from merely betting on baseball, that’s one thing. But now the feds are involved, what could the punishment be for Class A and Ortiz if it’s found they actually manipulated their performance for gamblers? David, prosecutors charged the pair with four charges each, and if you add up the potential sentences of those charges, they could be facing up to 65 years in prison. Now, nobody is expecting that to be the ultimate punishment, but it shows the severity of this case and just how seriously the Eastern District of New York, which remember was also involved in the indictments unsealed last week against the NBA, Terry Rosier, and some assistant coaches as well. They’re taking it extraordinarily seriously because I think they understand just as Major League Baseball does, this is about the integrity of the sport. and Major League Baseball, if they are found guilty, very likely would levy lifetime bans against them, as they did against Pete Rose and have done against others. It does feel like we’re reporting on this kind of thing more and more often. You mentioned baseball and the integrity of the sport and all that that’s concerned. How would you characterize the level of concern right now with Rob Manford and and baseball in general? David, I asked him that question during the World Series because let’s not forget it’s not just Emanuel Class and Luis Ortiz. Pat Hoberg, one of the best umpires in Major League Baseball, did not gamble on baseball, but somebody under one of his accounts did and Hoberg was fired to Capita Marano last year. An infielder for the San Diego Padres’s was handed a lifetime ban for placing nearly 400 bets on Major League Baseball. When I asked Manford this question, he essentially said, “We did not legalize gambling, but we have to be involved. We have to be partners with these companies because of the betting integrity services that they provide and because if gambling is going to be legal around the country and is going to be legal in any number of states, we want to know situations like this that are happening.” In the indictment today, it did say Emanuel Class started this scheme allegedly back in May of 2023. However, feds were not tipped off to this until one of those betting integrity firms found irregularities in wagers that were placed on those days that Luis Ortiz allegedly threw those pitches that were gambled on. It is certainly a threat to all sports. Jeff Pass, our baseball insider, adding some insight, some context into the story as Class A and Ortiz now face federal charges. Well, there have been numerous allegations brought up here over the course of several years. Here’s some examples. Uh, specific instances of fraud. May 19th, 2023, betterers allegedly made roughly $27,000 on a class A pitch that was faster than 94.95 mph. June 7th, 2023, betterers allegedly made roughly $68,000 on a class A pitch that was slower than 94.95 and called a ball. May 11th, 2025, betterers allegedly won approximately $11,000 on a class A pitch that was called a ball. For Ortiz, two pitches in question happened this past June, June 15th, alleged to have agreed to throw his first pitch of the second inning for a ball in exchange for $5,000 from Class A. The indictment alleges two co-conspiring betterers made approximately $26,000 off the wager. And then on June 27th, Ortiz allegedly agreed to throw his first pitch of the third inning for a ball in exchange for approximately $7,000. Betters are alleged to have made about $37,000 off that pitch. ESPN sports betting reporter David Perum joins the show now. And David, in modern day sports gambling, it seems as though you can place a bet on just about anything when it comes to props. So, with that being the case, what can leagues actually do to crack down on this? Well, the allegations in the indictments that have impacted players now in Major League Baseball, a player in the NBA, and multiple coaches, the allegations in those are clear violations of the league’s gambling policy. Players are not allowed to bet on the league that they play in. players are not allowed to feed information to gamblers and they’re certainly not allowed to manipulate their performance as part of a gambling scheme. So those allegations violate the league policy. So these players, if they’re doing this, are violating the policy. Now, what the leagues can do is talk to the sports books and they can discuss what type of bets they think are the most vulnerable to manipulation. In these cases, these were bets on the Major League Baseball or the bets on first pitches and whether they’d be a ball or a strike or in some cases whether they would be faster or slower than 95 miles an hour, for example. So maybe they’ll look at these bats, talk to the sports books and say, you know what, we think these are ripe for vulnerable to be manipulated and we’d like to remove them. Yeah, because there is a relationship obviously going ongoing between these leagues and these sports books. So if they get that collaboration there, maybe they could break up some rules that would prevent what we’re seeing now on multiple instances. David Perto, appreciate the insight. [Music]

Jeff Passan and David Purdum join SportsCenter to provide details on Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz being charged with fraud, conspiracy and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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