{"id":571682,"date":"2026-02-14T06:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571682\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T06:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:32:24","slug":"guardians-emmanuel-clase-accused-of-throwing-rigged-pitch-during-2024-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571682\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase accused of throwing rigged pitch during 2024 playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the latest twist involving Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and a complicated, alleged pitch-rigging operation<\/a>, Clase has been accused of participating in the illegal scheme during the 2024 postseason, according to The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That rigged pitch \u2014 per prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which the outlet cited from a 29-page indictment revealed Friday \u2014 occurred during the ninth inning of Game 1 of the ALDS against the Tigers, when Clase threw a perfect frame and tossed five of his eight pitches for strikes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear which of the three balls he rigged.<\/p>\n

Clase\u2019s first pitch of the inning to Detroit\u2019s Matt Vierling was a ball that he spiked in front of the plate, while he also opened the final at-bat of the frame to Colt Keith with a pair of balls.<\/p>\n

\"EmmanuelEmmanuel Clase is pictured leaving court in January in Brooklyn. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n

The attorney for Luis Ortiz, Clase\u2019s Guardians teammate and an alleged co-conspirator in the betting scheme, accused Clase of rigging pitches in at least 48 games<\/a>, while The Athletic reported that prosecutors have pinpointed 15 games from 2023-25 where pitch-rigging occurred.<\/p>\n

There were allegedly three other times where Clase planned to throw a rigged pitch but didn\u2019t enter the game, according to The Athletic, citing the indictment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmmanuel Clase is innocent and denies all allegations in the superseding indictment,\u201d Michael Ferrara, his lawyer, said in a statement, according to The Athletic. \u201cWhile we remain disappointed in the flawed views of the evidence and rush to judgment that led to these charges, we look forward to clearing his name at trial where the full facts and circumstances of the case will be revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clase, according to the indictment, also used words such as \u201crooster\u201d and \u201cchicken\u201d dating back to June 2023 messages to mask his alleged participation in the scheme, which were purported references to the betting scheme even though Clase was involved with rooster fighting in his native Dominican Republic, according to The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrow a rock at the first rooster in today\u2019s fight,\u201d a message to Clase before a May 18 game against the Reds stated, according to The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, of course, that\u2019s an easy toss to that rooster,\u201d Clase replied, the outlet added.<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandEmmanuel Clase reacts during the Guardians\u2019 playoff game against the Yankees in October 2024. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

Clase, along with Ortiz, went on non-disciplinary paid leave<\/a> in July as part of the gambling investigation, and the pair were officially indicted in November.<\/p>\n

Christos N. Georgalis, the lawyer for Ortiz, recently called his client \u201ca victim of Clase\u2019s scheme, rather than a knowing and willing participant\u201d and asked for the cases to be broken up.<\/p>\n

Bettors allegedly won $460,000 from the rigged pitches, prosecutors previously alleged.<\/p>\n

Clase and Ortiz, who remain on non-disciplinary paid leave, aren\u2019t allowed to report to spring training, and the former\u2019s trial is set for May 4 in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latest twist involving Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and a complicated, alleged pitch-rigging operation, Clase has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,406,538,4,722,185,1272],"class_list":{"0":"post-571682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-emmanuel-clase","13":"tag-guardians","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-mlb-betting","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-betting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116067588990861354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}