Major League Baseball has announced that Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, the two Cleveland Guardians pitchers at the center of a pitch-fixing scandal, have been placed on unpaid leave.
The players have been on paid leave since July.
Key Takeaways
- MLB has placed Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz on unpaid leave.
- Both players were previously on paid leave and face federal charges tied to alleged pitch fixing.
- Prosecutors allege the pitchers accepted bribes to influence bets, with the trial set to begin at some point later this year.
“As the legal proceedings involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz continue to move forward, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed that both players will remain on non-disciplinary leave from the Club without pay until further notice,” MLB said in a statement released Friday.
Clase, 28, and Ortiz, 27, did not pitch the second half of last season and were indicted on federal charges in early November. Trial is set for May 5, but is anticipated to be delayed until the fall.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account“This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz,” read the statement. “MLB has been closely monitoring the matter since alerting federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and will have no further comment until its investigation has been completed.”
The accusations
The pitchers were charged with manipulating performances in multiple games, with Clase accused of fixing at least 48 MLB games over two seasons, which included postseason games, a February ESPN report unveiled.
Both are accused of having received thousands of dollars in bribes to help a pair of anonymous gamblers in the Dominican Republic win nearly $500,000 in bets, with the bets centering around microbetting lines on factors such as pitch velocity or whether they would be a strike.
Ortiz, through his attorney, claims to have played a much smaller part in comparison to Clase, with the hopes that his case would be viewed separately given the “markedly different levels of culpability.”
“With 26 months of alleged criminal conduct by Mr. Clase – including suspect pitches during 48 games, dozens of communications with (a bettor), cash transfers and coordination of illegal wagers, (Ortiz could receive an unfair trial).”
