Cleveland Guardians and Fans Facing BETRAYAL After Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz Gambling Indictment

Cleveland Guardians and Fans Facing BETRAYAL After Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz Gambling Indictment

Foreign We’ve all been impatiently waiting for a resolution to the Class A NRT’s betting investigation. What we got on a news dump, NFL Sunday was the results. They’re going to take a lot longer. We’ll tell you what it means and if there’s an interpreter they can blame it all on. You are Locked On Guardians, your daily podcast on the Cleveland Guardians, part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. Hello friends, Guardians fans all around the world, Justin Latta and welcome to Lockdown Guardians, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network which thank you for that. One of your two co hosts for the show for the last three years and counting. Before joining my friend and co host here, Jeff ellis, I spent 18 years in counting covering the Guardians minor league farm system for as a prospect writer and editor from Arizona to Columbus. And I want to say thanks for joining us on our favorite half hour of the day. We hope it is yours as well because for the next half hour we’re talking about your Cleveland Guardians, the only daily podcast on the Guardians that covers the team from the majors, the minors, the draft, everything in between, every single day, even the most frustrating topics. Yeah, as you mentioned, I am Jeff Ellis. I’m your co host here and have been since Locked on expanded into baseball. For that I was a national writer at Scouting24 7, focused on prospects in the draft. I want to thank you for making today’s episode your first listen today and every day wherever it is you get podcasts and big shout out to all of our every dares. And thank you because you know, if you didn’t catch the site change at the beginning, we did pass another network to become the number one sports network in terms of podcasting. So thank you all for joining us and helping us reach such heights. Yes, couldn’t be done without you. We’re not here without you. We’re not having any fun without you. Jeff and I’d still be friends text about baseball, but we wouldn’t be doing this without you. So you’re the reason we show up every day and we do this and let you know that this episode of Lockdown Guardians, brought to you by our friends over at Game Time down the game map, create an account and use code locked on MLB to get $20 off your first purchase. All right, Jeff, on today’s show we’ll get into the impact of the class and Ortiz investigation now that we know more about it on the team’s roster and payroll. Talk about some implications this will have on the team in the league overall. And maybe one silver lining it actually might have on the league. I’ll get to that later. But we’ll start off talking about the indictment that came out on Sunday, November 9th, and we’ll talk about what’s in it, what isn’t in it. And let’s be very clear because I know a lot of people may or may not have read it or they. They saw secondhand sources or they saw other people saying things that weren’t true. I think it’s very important in, when it comes to legal cases to be very specific and. And not give, like, false information. And what’s in the indictment is this started in 2023 with Emmanuel Clase, but there were no flags raised in 2023. This doesn’t say they were investigating him in 2023. None of this really came to light until this year. But they were able to go back and follow the money on Those bets in 2023 and text messages and withdrawals. They had evidence of going back that far for Class A. Nothing in the indictment is pointing towards anything in 2024. It’s been a. I’ve seen this very commonly, everywhere else is that everybody wants to jump to the conclusion that Class A was throwing playoff games last year. There’s nothing in the indictment that says 2024. Does that mean that he didn’t throw and do something in the playoff game? Not necessarily. They. They don’t have any proof of that in the indictment. But that’s not what he’s being accused of or indicted for is anything in 2024. And what he’s being indicted for. We’ll talk about is throwing balls and, and knowing what he was doing, tipping that off. And. And the velocity issue of it all, too. Not results. These are. These are prop bets, not results from a hitter. And then Cl. And. Or manual or Luis Ortiz. I can’t get my name straight. Luis Ortiz was not part of this before the trade. I’ve seen a lot of people also say, you know, hey, how did they trade for Ortiz? This is going on. Shouldn’t Pittsburgh get in trouble for that? Well, this didn’t happen until Ortiz came to Cleveland. He only has two instance in June. So those are the things that are in the indictment. There’s a lot of charges in there. And they both could face up to 65 years in prison. I don’t think they’re going to face that much. I don’t know if they will face prison or not. I think they might. I think Class A might. But it’s pretty bad. I will say this indictment was a little more specific and a little more damning than I thought it was previously. I’m not sure what I thought previously, but there’s a lot more going on here than I, I maybe thought there would be. I, you know, I don’t know if there was more, if there was less than what I was expecting. I think kind of the interesting takeaway from all of this is. But when I read it, my kind of thought was, you know, that looking at the whole picture of it, that Ortiz maybe got talked into it by a buddy. It’s also interesting. It made me really think about the fact that, like, we haven’t had many Dominican pitchers, we haven’t had many, let’s be frank, Spanish speaking pitchers on this pitching staff the past few years. And that in some respects, don’t take this the wrong way, that might have been a positive because, you know, it might have kept this at a smaller situation because Class A, you know, is not, from what I understand, the most fluent English speaker you can get by. But you know, to discuss something like this, you probably want to converse in your native language. And on top of that, you know, it’s like I look at all of this very similar to, and I feel like we’re going to see more situations like this because it reminds me of point shaving. Right, Right. Like this is the type of gambling where it’s affecting the game you’re playing, but it’s not supposed to affect the outcome. And I, I think it’s going to get treated a lot more seriously, which is weird because I would argue that the point shaving scandals might have had bigger effects on outcome than a ball here or a pitch there. Not to, to minimize it. I don’t want to do that, but that it’s in that vein. This isn’t like throwing a game. And I agree with you. I think one of the big things everyone wants to be like, look at this bad placement. You know, I think in the postseason those arms were tired after heavy use. And I’m still going to believe it was tired arms as well as like lots of exposure. We’ve talked about these teams having seen guys too many times and for something like this to occur, you’re not going to want to do it on the big stage like the, the you’re not. It’s a, essentially a prop bet. Prop bets don’t, from what I understand, increase in their value in the postseason. Like, you don’t want to take the risk of a lot more eyes Everyone paying attention, you want to do these prop bets, and when there’s less eyes, it’s less likely to get got. And again, I think on a very basic level for someone like Class A, he just, he. It was like free money and he didn’t see it as a big deal. And that’s part of the problem and it’s part of the education that hopefully they’ll start doing with players. So they understand the importance here. But this is just. There’s so many levels. There’s so much to take from this situation. It stinks as a Guardians fan on a very basic level, but I think one of the big things people are running with, and I don’t think you can run with, is the idea that this was a postseason. Yeah. Thing. Yeah. There’s. There’s no evidence, there’s no formal charges that relate to that. And it’s so hard. Like, you can’t, like the home runs you give them 20, 24. You can’t, you can’t say, like, I’m gonna throw a ball down the middle of the plate. And you can’t guarantee that Carrie and Carlos, Stan, Aaron Judge are gonna hit a home run because you can’t. The whole idea here is that Class A was tipping off a better, that he was going to throw a ball and he was going to throw a slider instead of a fastball. Because I didn’t even know you could bet on specific velocities over under for the first pitch. I had no idea that was a thing. So he was sipping him off in that regard. But you can’t tell him, hey, bet Carrie Carpenter to hit a home run because I’m going to groove him a pitch. You can’t guarantee you’re going to face Gary Carpenter and you can’t guarantee he’s going to hit a home run no matter what pitch you throw to him. So that’s why this is not pointing at those games. Like, you could sit there, maybe say, well, maybe he did throw an intentional ball in one of those playoff series. Maybe he did and maybe that did pay off for somebody. But that’s not what he’s being accused of here because it’s very specific. Games in 2023 and 2025 and all evidence too, I think suggests, if you kind of follow the indictment, is that Ortiz got caught first. And I think Ortiz gave up Class A. Yeah. Pretty quickly. Which I would too, based on like Claude, say, got like $12,000 or $10,000 or something to. To get to bring in Ortiz, like he facilitated Ortiz Coming to this better and be part of the scandal. And class A was basically paid for his role in setting it up. And Ortiz got way less money out of it. Clase got a lot of money. But the funny thing is I’ve seen this on Twitter too. Other places, Class A on average, like, he got paid more per pitch this year in 2025 than he did in all of these, like, kickbacks and briberies for doing these things. So it’s like you were doing it for like, not a real financial gain. You were already making enough money, so you weren’t exactly making out like big money. And obviously it impacts Ortiz more because he’s making the league minimum. But that’s still close to $800,000. So it’s still, you know, very goofy in terms of how much future money you’re throwing away for this. And that’s why it’s hard to believe. And the class A thing, like, you want to go back to character too. Like, he had the PED suspension in 2020. Remember, people forgot about that because it was a shortened season. But guardians made that trade in in December of 2019 and then by March of 2020 he was suspended for PEDs and he served the whole suspension during the COVID year. So, like, there are. There’s a history here of character issues that go along with what he’s doing here. All right, I want to get into more implications of what this is going to have on the team in the league. I’ve also. Jeff, got a theory here. Put your tinfoil hat on that it actually might be good for baseball in. In a way, I’ll tell you what that is. Next, the NBA. It is back, friends. And there’s no better place to get in on NBA action every night that the FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. If you missed the start of any game you’re interested in or you want to ride the hot hand during the game, FanDuel’s got live best everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. You can combine all those live bets into same game parlay for a shot at a bigger pad, as we’ve talked a lot about today. And it keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is in it and having a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun watching the Cavs over the weekend, especially on Saturday night. That was a great game to stay involved in. And you know, fandom makes it a lot more interesting. As long as you are responsible and doing it legally, those things all matter. And that’s what Fando wants you to do, of course, and have your fun too. And if you’re a new customer, FanDuel is letting Lockdown Guardians listeners get $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So head over to FanDuel.com right now to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thank you for making Lockdown Guardians your first listen for the day and and thank you for making Lockdown Guardians and Lockdown Sports Network your number one sports network on the podcast overall and keep up to date with all things Guardians. In the off season, you can hit the Bell on YouTube so whenever you get notified of a new episode of Lockdown Guardians or a reaction video to the class and Ortiz betting scandal news or free agent news, we’ll have all that free here on YouTube and you can auto download wherever you get podcasts. We’re free everywhere, every single day, so keep your show in the feed no matter what’s going on. Even during the holiday season. Especially if you want to debate some Guardians baseball at the Thanksgiving table. I know I’m going to get a lot of questions at the Thanksgiving table about all this, so hopefully other people are too and hopefully they’re listening to life on Guardians and debating it. So I’m wondering what the implications will be of this on the team and the league as a whole. Because Jeff, I know you said like this is not going away and 100 agree with that. The other thing I want to point out too is we don’t have direct evidence of this. I don’t have physical evidence of this. But I do think it’s worth at least noting that there is the possibility that there were some threats that might have because because everybody’s going to ask why on earth did Classy Nortiz do this, especially class say with the millions he was already making, why would he do this? I think there’s at least the notion to investigate whether or not there was motivation on their part to do this by outside sources meaning or their threats. We’ve seen similar things like we’ve seen Wilson Ramos got kidnapped I think in his home country. I don’t know where he’s exactly from, but he’s not from the US I know he got kidnapped over one off season and players families have been threatened in the past too. So like I think not saying that’s what happened here, but I’m saying there’s at least a a a reason to check that out to see if that played a part in the motivation to do this. No, I agree. Like we know, you know, was it wasn’t it Oscar Tavares who like was chased in his car and led to the car accident where he died? Like we know that there has been a lot of scary occurrences with players. Andy Marte, Louis Valbueno, Val Buena. Yeah, I think that was the same. I want to say that was the same incident. Unfortunately it’s, there’s just been so many of these stories through the. And it again, it’s not to justify it. I mean there’s definitely could have been a situation where this all started with Class A and then maybe he got in over his head and things went from there. Or maybe it was the other way from the start. I mean everything will be slowly revealed in time. But like the situation is such where you at least have to bring it up because we know that this happens, we know that there are threats. I mean I, I would put it this way. I think there’s a better chance threats or violence was done to a, of someone that matters to class A over a two and a half year period. Being involved with people you had to be involved in. Then there’s a better chance it did happen than didn’t. I would say based on what we’ve seen in the past and what we know. I would agree. The other thing too, I, I can say with certainty is that, and this is, this is going to continue too. At least one former Guardians player, for a former teammate of these guys who’s no longer on the team was questioned and not about his involvement in this, in this whole betting a scandal, but what he knew about what was going on. So I know at least one person for sure was, was talked to by the feds about what went on. And that tells me other players are going to be interviewed too. And they’re gonna, they’re gonna try to ask like, you know, especially guys like Jose Ramirez and Carlos Santana, they’re going to be asked like what you knew about it, if you knew anything at all. And I’m not saying they did, but it just stinks to me that a, this is going to hang over the team’s head because they’re going to go through a whole like trial because they’re going to plead not guilty. Luis Ortiz’s agent already came out and you know, claimed his innocence, which, you know, all defense attorneys are going to do. Yeah. Watched enough, I’ve watched enough legal dramas to, to say that we haven’t heard anything from work from Class A yet. But I do know the Dominican Republic, unfortunately for him, does have extradition, so he won’t be able to hide in the Dominican Republic away from this. But other teammates are going to be questioned, and I think that stinks for them because if they weren’t involved, they have to sit through and be grilled about this now. And I’m sure they feel betrayed on all this, too, even if it didn’t directly affect the outcome of games. If they thought they were just, you know, throwing balls and getting guys paid and they were getting bribes for it, you know, you’re still betraying your teammates by doing something that you don’t want to do. And now they’re kicked off the team, out of baseball, probably, and that stinks. So I think, I think that’s going to be interesting to see. Like, Santana made the whole statement during the season about how he’s still friends with them, he still talks to them, and whatever happened is there as on them, not him. Like that’s going to get you directly questioned. I think it stinks that Jose Ramirez would be dragged into this. Not that he did anything, but the fact that he’s got to answer questions for these guys. And that’s, that’s the one thing I could tell you for sure. Like, players don’t always have to talk to media. We’ve done this long enough to know that. Yeah, but I, I know for sure what players do, other players hate is when players do something and the media wants to talk to them about it and they avoid the media and other players have to answer for them. They hate that the other players hate having to answer for their teammates. And this is going to be a case where other, other players are going to have to answer for them or at least be part of it. I think that really sucks. And it’s not, it’s not the fault of guys like Chris Anthony. So I’ve seen the same thing. People are saying, ah, Chris Anthony should be fired. Steven Vote should be fired. Trust me, there’s no way they were in on this because the league. Those guys would not. You. You’d know. Like, they wouldn’t just see that going on. Like, this is not a, you know, a Joe Paterno, Penn State kind of thing. Like, this is. This is being. Was being deliberately hidden. Yeah, agreed. It’s, it’s. Those are just silly takes. And it’s. I bet if we look and looked at a lot of those people’s accounts, they’ve been calling for those same people to be fired all year. That’s kind of my takeaway from It. But yeah, I think that when you’re looking at the grand scheme with all of these people, players, it’s like it, you’re losing a future hall of Famer, which stinks you, you’re losing a young pitcher you targeted who was showing great growth and at worst case scenario was going to be another weapon in the pen. It had history and success in that role before being stretched out to a starter. So it’s, it, it, it’s, it’s two big losses to the team. And like I said, it’s hopefully going to be a learning moment. It’s going to be a moment for the league to kind of get out in front of some of this stuff and talk to players and make sure they know like this isn’t, you know, again, I’m going to compare it to point shaving again. It’s like. And in the past, like guys who point shaved were able to come right back in the league. It is, you know, nowadays, the. As I was talking about you talking with you before air, it’s like Paul Hornig and Alex Karras, the great comedic actor and also football player, were both suspended and for gambling on games and came back the next year. There’s a lot of players are accused of point shaving and came back. Now often in those cases it was not. Well, you know, they didn’t bet directly on the games. Maybe they took a bribe to do it or things like that. But unfortunately, American sports, because that’s what I know. I’m sure it’s all over sports and illegal gambling is. It’s part of it. They’re always, you know, trying to find ways to make that advantage even more of an advantage. And you just got to be smarter. Like it doesn’t. That’s gonna be. The thing that always gets me is Class A was on pace to make hundreds of millions. Ortiz could have been as well as a starter, at least tens of millions. And it was just a dumb gamble that. All I can think was they thought like, who are we hurting? It’s free money. Oh yeah, people were hurt for sure. The guardians are victims. Major League Baseball are victims. And that’s going to play a role in the legal battle. They think that this is a victimless crime. They were getting money out of it and someone else was getting money out of it too. I thought it was very brazen, by the way, in the indictment that they said the class A was making phone calls during the game, texting during the game, and he also got one of the people, the betters tickets to the game. You’re bringing that guy who’s involved in this into the stadium. That’s very brazen. That’s stupidly brazen. Also, that’s it’s against the rules to use your cell phone during the game. I want to know more about that and how that, how he got away with that because they don’t know where it was happening but could tell you for sure. It’s definitely against the rules. All right. I still got to tell you why I think there is a silver lining from Major League Baseball. Not Major League Baseball as a entity, but for sports fans, for baseball fans. You’re going to benefit from this. Maybe. I’ll tell you why next. The NFL season is heating up and honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. And let’s be honest about that. I know buying tickets is a real hassle. It’s a pain, especially talking about like playoff games or any really big event. Obviously, we don’t have to worry about that in Cleveland with the Browns. But I use game time for things like bonus players tickets. I was waiting for the best deal because game time gives me the best advantage as it does to all fans who use game time as fast. Easy back with a game time guarantee. All tickets are delivered 100 authentic guaranteed on time and all fees are included. So I was able to see exactly what I was paying for before I got to check out a couple taps. I found easy deals on that concert at the last minute so I can go this Tuesday. Save a lot of money and you’re in favor of NFL games. You can get as low as $100 as well. If you’re checking out game time for some deals too, download the GameTime app and create your account. Use promo code LOCKDOWNML for $20 off that first game time purchase term supply. Again, that’s promo code L C K E d o n MLB for $20 off swipe tap ticket Go download Game Time today Foreign if you’re a need of more Guardians talk just beyond the show, you know we’re not gonna. You’re not gonna get it too many other places. Although I’m sure a lot of places will cover the betting scandal news this week. But you can follow Jeff and I on social media at Jeff MLB Draft. You can follow me at JL Baseball or Jail Underscore Baseball and you can also join the Lockdown Guardians Insiders club. We text the insiders every day about Guardians News rumors. We do monthly video calls. We’re due for one of those soon mailbag questions come from our insiders as well. And we sometimes will deliver bonus written content. You know, they got the news of the Class A and Ortiz indictment immediately. As soon as I knew. You can get those [email protected] locked on guardians. All right, Jeff. I think there is maybe a silver lining for baseball fans in this. Maybe not Major League Baseball as an organization, but I do think maybe Major League Baseball fans might benefit from this. Does that sound crazy? I’m looking forward to hearing the why. You know, Rob Manfred says he wants to retire soon. He’s not gonna have. I think this is his last term. I don’t know how long his contract goes, but I know a couple things he wants to do before he’s done his commissioner baseball is expansion and geographic realignment for divisions. If he wants to be remembered for those things, a betting scandal and a second work stoppage probably aren’t going to help his case. So as everybody knows, 2027, there’s no CBA for right now. So after 2026, we are all expecting an owner’s league lockout of the players. Rob Manford said it multiple times. He’s going to use that as leverage. He’s admitted that out loud, which is crazy to me that he would say that out loud. Among other things he’s accused of saying to players. That’s another story. I think if this bed, this betting scandal, make no mistake, is definitely a black eye for the league. It’s very ugly. This is not good. This. All these details are not good. I think this is going to put pressure on Rob Manfred to avoid a missing games. Now, there was a lockout in 2021 going to 2022, so they didn’t miss games. The MLB has not missed games outside of COVID They haven’t missed games since 95 and 94 with the strike back then, I don’t think the league and Rob Manfred can afford this betting scandal and a. And miss games from a work stoppage in 2027. So I think there’s a chance. I’m not saying for sure, but I’m. I’m saying I think there’s a chance this could pressure them into getting a deal. Think about 90. Think about after 94. We didn’t see the impacts in Cleveland. Right. Baseball was very popular in 95 in Cleveland because they had the new stadium, a great team. But other places outside of Cleveland, baseball suffered. It took a while for baseball to come back. And steroids, ironically enough, the last major scandal in this sport, kind of Save baseball. Could pressure to make a deal and avoid a lockout, work stoppage, missed games and a betting scandal force them to the table? No, not at all. Not, not one, not even a little bit. This doesn’t matter in the comparison to that because that’s about money. This is about a small market team that fans are going to forget about this the minute those players are gone. This is a minor blip. It’s a big wide issue. It’s a league wide issue, but it’s. Not one we’re seeing all over the place. We’re only seeing the issue in Cleveland. There hasn’t been other suspensions. There hasn’t been other ties to Gamb. There hasn’t been other big issues. It’s a small market team that had a. You know there was the Otani situation but as you know, you said at the start it’s like they had a, the, the interpreter where it’s like all his fault. So even if you put that in, there’s been two blips in two years. This doesn’t matter. I mean even if there was 10 blips, it doesn’t matter because they have all the momentum, they have all the power right now. They are going to go hard into this lockout. We are going to miss games. I am 100 convinced of that. And they’re not going to come out of it until there is like finally that lockout or finally I got the cap or something similar to that. They’re really going. I don’t think this has any effect or any change. They, they have set themselves up to. They’re taking a hard run. They have spent way too much time and effort to set up and get this thing ready. This, this won’t change anything, not one iota. All right. All right. We’ll see. What’s my view? It’s. I’m hoping it does. Two guys was the dinosaurs with the hard heads would ram into each other in cartoons like this is. You know. Comment below if you want to tell me what that, what Dino was. But this is setting up for that situation. Just. Okay, so the impact as far as the roster and the payroll. Let’s lay this out too. So there’s no way Major League baseball lets them play like they’re. They’re gonna go from the non disciplinary paid paid leave. They’re gonna go to being on the restricted list. That’s what’s going to happen here. I don’t know if this will happen immediately or when but. So right now the players aren’t being paid. They get paid during the season. So Classe and Ortiz are not being paid during the off season and they’re, they’re gonna, they’re going to be on the restricted list come next season when they’re due to start getting paid, which is March or April. So however long that goes on. And I’m, I’m sure this is going to be a battle because I don’t think either of these guys, we already know Ortiz is not pleading guilty or admitting guilt right now. So this, this is going to drag on for a little bit longer. So they’re not gonna have to pay these guys next year, at least while they’re on the restricted list. The question is when they can place them on the restricted list. And the restricted list is used right now for like Wander Franco because of legal issues and he can’t report because he can’t get back to the U.S. whereas these two guys will be charged in the U.S. so that’s a different story. But I don’t think they’ll be on the hook for classes or Ortiz’s salary next year because they’ll be restricted. So that helps them out. Plus it doesn’t count against the 40 man roster. I don’t know about past money. Like recouping past money, like that’s going to be a whole different story. That’s legally has to be played out. But they already assumed they weren’t going to be on the roster in 2026 and now they should be able to avoid their salary. So the question now is, you know, if you don’t have to pay class a, was it six and a half million? 4.5. Was it really next year? Yeah, I believe he’s still in the 4.5. I thought it was up to 6 next year. Am I wrong in that? I thought was it 4.5 this year? In the top of my head I thought he was still at 4.5, but yeah, either way it’s not a whole ton. 6.4 next year. 6.4. He was 49 this year. Okay, so I was wrong. 49 this year. Okay. Yeah. So 6.4 off the books. Yeah. So that should mean in theory they don’t. They pretty, pretty sure they want to pay him next year. That, that should in theory be money. Yeah. The bullpen next year or somewhere on the roster. Yes. So I, I’ll be very curious to see how that goes. And they’re going to be asked questions like, you know, the, the GM meetings are coming up later this month and the winter meetings obviously are in December and This is going to be the questions they get. They won’t even be legally able to answer questions because it’s a legal issue. So they, they can be asked all the questions they want, but they’re not going to give you any answers because it’s a legal issue. And Major League Baseball and the criminal code and all that stuff are different outcomes. Like, those are two different investigations, two separate sets of like, legal actions. So Major League Baseball can do something different. But the fact that they were indicted federally on criminal charges doesn’t look good for their future in baseball. Like, that’s why Cleveland was, you know, not counting on him in 2026. And if they’re on the restriction, these guys, these guys can’t play overseas either, by the way. Like, obviously they might be. They won’t be able to leave the country because they’re going to be in a legal battle. Ortiz is already arrested and, and at some point, Clause is going to have to come to the US to face his arraignment too. They won’t be able to leave. Yeah, yeah. The, the last time, you know, someone went to a grand d. Grand jury trial about being involved in gambling involving a Cleveland athlete, I believe was John Hot Rod Williams with point shaving at Tulane. So I think that’s, that’s the last time that anything like this has happened. So it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s a brand new world. At some point we’ll have to sit down and look at the luxury tax because people are. Luxury tax. The. Where they are with money. It is a different situation with Classe off the books, but you know, their projected payroll, if they keep. Everyone, I think is getting misrepresented out there right now. I’m seeing some, you know, that’s, it’s not really today’s episode, but I’m seeing some people talk about they’re gonna have 60, 70 million to spend. I’m like, no, you know, just, just for the record, like Jose Tanner and Quan alone are about $40 million. So that’s, that’s gonna be, you know, a decent chunk just for three guys. Yeah, we’ll get into that at some point, especially as we hit the, at the winter meetings and really dive into free agency stuff. By the way, I was pointing out too before that if you’re, if a player is on the restricted list, they can’t play. Those are honored in like the Japanese and Chinese leagues and I think South Korea. So like, they can’t play there either. If they’re on the MLB restricted list and that’s part of why the Dominican Winter League also decided to not roster them, because they didn’t want to be involved in any legal drama with this going on. So they were. They were right. They probably knew that these guys were being investigated by the Department of Justice and they didn’t want to be involved in that. I can’t say I blame them because I don’t think Cleveland wants to be involved in that. But here we are, tomorrow’s show. Since we’re talking about relievers and the bullpen, we’ll talk about the state of the bullpen heading into 2026. Now that we know for sure there’s no way Class A is going to be part of it. And we’ll talk about the free agents on the market. It’s a good bullpen free agent market. So that’s another bonus for the guardians. They get some money back and it’s a good free agent market for the. For believers. Yep, I just looked. It’s 34 million for those three. So no one needs to comment and let me know. Thank you all for joining us. Remember to read and review. Download daily. It helps. We’ll have more fun conversations in the future about how this team is going to get better. Not these ones about how they are worse. But thank you all for joining us. We hope we are informative. And again, you know, thank you for helping us be the number one sports podcasting network. Thank you all for joining us. And go, go Guardians. Go, go away from prop bets. Guardians. Don’t look at them. Don’t look at them. Anyone on the team, please.

Cleveland Guardians and MLB rocked by indictment of Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz in betting scandal. What does this mean for them, the Guardians and the 2026 season? Prop bets, phone calls during games, and criminal charges surface as federal indictments detail a scheme going back to 2023. Is the league vulnerable to further repercussions, or could this controversy pressure Commissioner Rob Manfred to reconsider his approach ahead of the 2027 CBA?
Justin Lada and Jeff Ellis break down the scandal’s ripple effects on Guardians payroll, future free agency strategy, and clubhouse dynamics. Discussion highlights Ortiz’s trade timeline, legal threats facing Latin American players, and how the restricted list could shield Cleveland from salary obligations. Will the Guardians recover, and who steps up in their bullpen next season?

04:56 “Dominican Pitchers and Team Dynamics”
07:47 Pitch Betting Controversy Explained
12:11 Potential Threats and Team Impact
14:32 Guardians Betting Scandal Investigation
17:58 Gambling Scandals and Player Lessons
26:31 Players Face Restricted List Pay Battle
28:30 Baseball’s Legal and MLB Struggles
30:48 MLB Restricted List Implications

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
PrizePicks
Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.
PrizePicks — Run Your Game.
Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
PrizePicks
Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.
PrizePicks — Run Your Game.
Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOGuardians?sid=YouTube
Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB

#Guardians #ClevelandGuardians #MLB