ARLINGTON, TEXAS – JULY 15: Emmanuel Clase #48 of the Cleveland Guardians speaks to media during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Globe Life Field on July 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images)
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Following a lengthy investigation prompted by odd prop betting patterns, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were indicted on charges related to manipulating bets on individual pitches.
Ortiz was arrested last week, then appeared in court on Monday before being released on $500,000 bond. But Clase, who has served as one of the best closers in all of baseball in recent seasons, has remained out of the country and out of custody.
The indictment includes alleged text conversations from Clase that suggest he was personally coordinating prop bets that would pay off as he intentionally threw pitches outside of the strike zone.
“At about 1 p.m. on May 28, 10 minutes before the first pitch of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clase received a text from Bettor-1 asking if he was all set,” according to a summary of the indictment allegations from The Athletic, which pointed to just one of several apparent efforts to coordinate bets. “Clase responded yes. At 3:36 p.m., just before Clase entered in the ninth to secure a save, two bettors placed wagers totaling about $4,000 that a particular pitch would be a ball or HBP.”
Clase’s agent has professed his client’s innocence in the face of the charges, but the indictment includes several other alleged examples of the pitcher directly coordinating with bettors.
However, during a Spanish-language interview, journalist Luis Hernandez reported that Clase feels his communications could have been misinterpreted by authorities.
“Journalist Luis Hernandez, a close friend of Emmanuel Clase and native of Río San Juan, clarified that the baseball player personally explained to him that the phone calls he made about his fighting roosters were possibly misinterpreted by federal authorities as conversations linked to sports betting,” MLB insider Hector Gomez explained in a translated post on X, formerly Twitter. “According to Hernández, Clase directly told him that his messages and calls about ‘the rooster play’ were possibly mistakenly taken ‘as coded calls’ related to sports betting.”
Hernandez relayed the explanation during a Spanish-language appearance on “Revista Deportiva,” a Dominican sports program, per Gomez. Hernandez also confirmed that Clase is in Rio San Juan, his hometown in the Dominican Republic.
“Guardians Emmanuel Clase stated that the calls intercepted by the FBI were for rooster fighting and not related to illegal bets,” Gomez added.
It’s unclear if Clase and his representation will adopt that explanation as an official defense if and when he faces prosecutors in court. Based on the details of the indictment, it might seem like a bizarre strategy, given how Clase’s communications seem to line up with bets made directly on his pitches.
