Every major sport seems to be dealing with major gambling scandals.
First it was the NBA with alleged schemes involving Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach and NBA champion Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones, and now it’s the MLB with two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz indicted for fraud, conspiracy and bribery.
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July 23, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) reacts after a win over the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field. / David Richard-Imagn Images
Again it’s coming from Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, the same prosecution group that has charged the Rozier, Billups, and Jones, and Clase, 27, and Ortiz, 26, are accused of rigging individual pitches, which led to hundreds of thousands of winnings for gamblers knowing the outcome.
Emmanuel Clase was reportedly paid $7,000 for each ball he intentionally threw
— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) November 9, 2025
For Clase especially, this could be a devastating career killer, since the three-time All-Star and two-time All-MLB First-Team selection, and the two-time AL Reliever of the Year was already going to make a little over $38 million in his career, making $10 million each of the next two seasons, one of the best relievers of the game would have been a free agent at 31 years old.
Emmanuel Clase was set to make at the very least $38.1 million dollars in his career
He threw it away for $12,000 which is 0.0003% of that. pic.twitter.com/DQihpWTcgN
— AT (@YankeeWRLD) November 9, 2025
That could have been north of $100 million.
The two pitchers were put on administrative leave in July, so there had already been expectation that these charges were inevitable.
When you see the video evidence of the pitches that Clase allegedly purposefully threw as balls, it’s damning. The funniest charge has to be for the pitch against Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages, who is now famous for posterizing Kike Hernandez in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 of the World Series to break the hearts of the Toronto Raptors, who swung, resulting in a strike, so the bettors in on the alleged scheme lost.
I’m crying son Andy Pages costed Emmanuel Clase 100 thousand dollars https://t.co/gTED3qpsOK pic.twitter.com/tpZrY9KELq
— 🌊 (@MIKEYSAINRISTIL) November 9, 2025
Some of the other pitches were so wild, there was nothing left to chance.
Sadly, Clase reportedly made $6,000-7,000 for each missed pitched, and then he is accused of bringing in his Dominican Republic countryman Ortiz, who was paid $5,000.
July 26, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) celebrates with catcher Austin Hedges (27) after the win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Clase is also accused of being the mastermind, and given he’s one of the best relievers in the game, he probably had complete confidence in his abilities to pull it off.
Too bad it might have cost him over $100 million.
July 6, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) throws a pitch during the ninth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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