A jolt to baseball’s moral core—and a warning about the corrosive incentives of prop betting.
Two Dominican pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians—Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz—were indicted on federal charges alleging they conspired with bettors to rig props on individual pitches. The Department of Justice says the scheme involved prearranging pitch outcomes—balls instead of strikes, specific velocities—so co-conspirators could place profitable micro-bets. This isn’t the old, blunt-force game-fixing that echoes the 1919 Black Sox; it’s subtler, tech-enabled manipulation of in-game events that sportsbooks now monetize second by second. And that’s why it’s so dangerous.
Prosecutors unsealed the indictment Sunday in the Eastern District of New York. Ortiz was arrested in Boston; Clase is not currently in U.S. custody. The charges: wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy—each man facing a theoretical maximum of up to 65 years if convicted on all counts. MLB says it contacted federal law enforcement early and is continuing its own probe. The Guardians say they’re cooperating. Both pitchers had already been placed on paid leave this summer.
This is a gut punch to MLB’s insistence that legalized sports betting and on-field integrity can peacefully coexist. It’s also a case study in how prop markets create asymmetric temptations at the edges of play.
How The Alleged Scheme Worked
Prosecutors detail that Clase, the Guardians’ All-Star closer, allegedly coordinated with bettors as early as May 2023, including during games, often to manipulate the first pitch of an at-bat. To make sure a pitch would be called a ball, he sometimes spiked it in the dirt. Bettors wagered on the pitch’s characteristics—type, velocity, or ball/strike—and cashed out. Authorities allege at least $400,000 in fraudulent winnings came from wagers tied to Clase’s pitches.
Ortiz, a starter, allegedly joined in June 2025 for two games where he agreed to throw pre-determined balls after payments were arranged. Prosecutors say bettors won at least $60,000 from the Ortiz-linked pitches. The indictment even describes a cash withdrawal—$50,000—before a June 27 game, with $15,000 routed to a co-conspirator to fund wagers.
Their lawyers dispute the allegations. Ortiz’s counsel calls the government’s case “weak and circumstantial,” insisting he tried to win with every pitch. Clase’s agent says he’s innocent and intends to clear his name. Those defenses should be heard. But the structural problem this case surfaces—the ease of corrupting hyper-granular betting markets—won’t vanish at arraignment.
What Makes Prop Betting A Unique Integrity Risk
- Micro-incentives, macro-damage: You don’t need to throw a game to corrupt the market. One spiked slider at the right time—especially if communicated in advance—can shift significant money. That’s a low-cost, high-upside temptation on the player’s side and a nearly invisible signal in the chaos of a nine-inning game.
- Information asymmetry: Real-time texting during games—exactly what prosecutors allege—turns private, actionable info into a trading edge. In a world where sportsbooks and leagues market “live” and “same-game” props, the system itself valorizes speed and inside tidbits.
- Enforcement paradox: MLB posts Rule 21 in every clubhouse and runs trainings. But while leagues preach integrity, broadcasts are saturated with betting integrations and stadiums host sportsbooks. Players are told “don’t touch the stove” while the oven door is wide open and the burner glows.
Sources: DOJ press release; reporting on pitch-level allegations from CBS Sports and CNBC.
The Stakes: More Than Two Pitchers
This case is not just about Clase or Ortiz, or even the Guardians. It’s about whether the business model the leagues have embraced—partnered sportsbooks, relentless in-game prop menus—can be reconciled with honest services to clubs, fair dealing with betting platforms, and the public’s trust.
- Democratic norms within sports: We talk a lot about democratic institutions outside the arena. Sports have their own: transparent rules, enforceable guardrails, equal playing fields. When those norms erode, cynicism metastasizes. Fans start to look at every wild pitch as a tell. That corrodes a civic good—shared belief in fair contests—that American life increasingly struggles to supply elsewhere.
- Global reverberations: Both players are Dominican. The DR is the beating heart of MLB’s international pipeline, where teenage prospects chase precarious ladders of opportunity. If the sport can’t firewall these players from predatory actors around betting markets, the infection won’t stop at U.S. borders.
- Platform accountability: Online sportsbooks profited from the very prop structures now alleged to have been gamed. Regulators and leagues should demand tighter anomaly detection, lower prop limits on easily manipulated events, and fast, mandatory reporting to enforcement when patterns trigger alarms—exactly how this probe reportedly began.
What MLB Should Do Next
- Sunset vulnerable props: Retire or severely limit ball/strike and first-pitch props. Make “integrity risk” a core criterion for sportsbook menu design.
- Harden communications: Lockbox policies for in-dugout and bullpen communication devices, with auditable logs; aggressive bans on in-game personal device use.
- Real-time monitoring with teeth: Independent, cross-sport integrity units with subpoena-friendly MOUs to fast-track alerts to state commissions and federal partners.
- Player protections and penalties: Expand financial literacy and anti-coercion training, yes—but also raise the cost of cheating. Immediate, transparent disciplinary frameworks build deterrence. The rules are already on clubhouse walls; enforcement must be swift, consistent, and public.
- Regulator requirements: State regulators should mandate operator-level anomaly detection standards and rapid reporting SLAs for prop markets most prone to manipulation.
This is the uncomfortable truth: leagues wanted the handle; they got the hazards. If MLB treats this as two bad actors rather than a systemic design flaw, it will see this movie again.
The Bottom Line
The indictment alleges a scheme that monetized the gray space between a sport’s soul and its new revenue streams. Whether or not a jury convicts, MLB has to confront the incentives it helped create. Integrity isn’t a press release—it’s an architecture. Right now, the architecture around prop betting is too easy to exploit.