11:00am: Zack Meisel and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that the investigation pertains to gambling.
9:35am: Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz has been placed on non-disciplinary paid leave through the All-Star break due to an “ongoing league investigation,” according to announcements from both the team and the league. The leave was jointly agreed upon by the league and the Players Association. The Guardians’ statement noted that they are not permitted to comment further at this time. Neither the league nor the team provided specific details on the nature of the investigation.
Ortiz, 26, is in his first season with Cleveland after coming over from the Pirates in exchange for first baseman Spencer Horwitz. He stepped right into the Guardians’ rotation and has started 16 games, tossing 88 2/3 innings with a 4.36 ERA, a 25.1% strikeout rate and an 11% walk rate.
Ortiz had been slated to start tonight’s game for Cleveland, but left-hander Joey Cantillo will make that start instead. He’ll join a rotation also including Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Logan Allen and Slade Cecconi. The Guardians lost righty Ben Lively to Tommy John surgery earlier this season, while longtime ace Shane Bieber’s return from last year’s Tommy John procedure was slowed by a minor setback. Bieber recently resumed throwing.
… and another one bites the dust…
Who would have thought that legal sports betting would have negative consequences?
Exactly. Legalized sports betting is probably one of, if not the worst development in sports in the 21st century so far.
the zombie runner is worse
The only positive aspect of legalized sports betting is that it takes some commercial time away from all those personal injury attorneys!
And from Big Pharma
Agree 100% Duffy. It’s absolutely everywhere. I don’t need the broadcasters to stop calling a game to give me betting odds. I don’t need my local sports website to write an entire article about good bets that week, etc etc. You can’t get away from it.
Manfred and his ego are a thousand times worse
This opinion brought to you by F*nd*el. Visit our site for a bat that you can’t lose.
Careful. It’s all conjecture at this point, but it’s possible that Fanduel and/or Draftkings ALERTED MLB of some betting irregularities, which led to this investigation.
Had sports betting not been legal, the problem (if there is one) might not have been brought to light at all.
sm
The problem isn’t that it’s legal or not, it’s that Ortiz couldn’t follow a league rule that EVERYONE has driven into their heads from day one.
You’re just hoping the services called it in, but honestly it’s almost impossible for them to make a call like that without a lot of doubt. All a player needs to do is create a hotmail.com email address and bill back to paypal. And even if Ortiz didn’t those few things it’s still pretty easy for most players to say “Must be some other Luis Ortiz” since most names are not that unique. Ohtani and Funderburk aside, you need to either submit a ton of names or be very certain for this to be usefull.
I’m sure more people bet due to legalized gambling, but it wasnt exactly difficult to place a bet before. If a player is placing bets with an illegal bookie, it would be difficult for the league to find out, whereas on DK, Fanduel, etc its only a matter of time.
Russ – So you’re saying it’s harder to place bets and transfer/receive funds anonymously online than it is in person? Finding a friend or distant relative to set up an online account for you under their name is difficult to do and easy for LE to find and prove?
Gee, then I wonder why I’ve been asked so many times by gamblers to be online runners for them.
Wasn’t Ohtani …. err, I mean his translator busted only because the illegal bookie he was using was being investigated?
Sorry dude, if you’re a bookie I’m not trying to take away your business ….I’m just giving it straight.
‘Tis a golden age for degenerate gamblers.
Not sure you needed the word gamblers at the end. LOL
Does anybody know what the line is on him being placed on the “Permanently Ineligible List” I’d like to get few bucks down on it, especially after the bath I’ve taken on the Yanks the last three games. Ahahahahahaha!
@BHJ – …gamblers (and politicians).
All he has to say is that his translator told him it was fine.
Well – young pitching is always a gamble…
If he was on the Pirates and betting against them doesn’t necessarily mean he’s throwing games it just means he’s a smart gambler. On the other hand if he’s doing it with the Guardians it’s more of a grey area. LOL
“It was my interpreter”
Prolly made a ton of money on taking the under on runs scored for Cleveland.
One wonders why these investigations have become more frequent in the past year or two across sports…
Because it’s easier than ever to gamble on sports, and people probably don’t even try to hide what they’re doing because they don’t think they will get caught?
The ellipsis was intended to make it a rhetorical statement…
Because there is a paper trail now
Also, young men (so, the core demographic that professional athletes are comprised of) are particularly susceptible to gambling.
While they’re at it can they look into Weissert? He definitely had the over last night
Weissert has been brutally overused by an inept manager.
Gambling?
There is no gambling at Bushwood!
Predicted this when MLB got in bed with gamblers. It’s going to get worse.
I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
*pockets his own take*
Not enough people are going to get that fantastic reference. Well done.
This investigation brought to you by draftkings
Just when things were going so well for Cleveland
Legalizing gambling makes it legitimate which makes it harder to convince those in the game that it’s “wrong”. When your games are on FanDuel with pitching changes brought to you by BetMGM with inning by inning lines updated by Bet365, the message of the danger gets lost.
Except on the sign in every clubhouse that clearly states no gambling..
Yea otherwise im with you..except the sign is there so..yea
Just blame the “translator”
Oh that only works for who the MLB wants it to work for
“I never read beyond the headlines.”
“I nor my accountants can read bank statements properly” – Ohtani
“I’m a known Ohtani hater because the Padres are yet to catch up to the Dodgers and seeing an ‘other’ at the top of baseball irks me”
– Easy as 1 2 3
What’s the over under on the length of the suspension?
I see what you did there.
I wouldn’t bet on him being back this season.
Hope he has an interpreter.
Oh but Ohtani got to play while under investigation. Such bs double standards. Hope Luis sues.
“On a warm summers evening, on a train bound for nowhere…”
If it was FanDuel, MLB will say that was okay.
And Denny McLain will be unsuspended.
And Pete Rose will be exhumed to give a HOF acceptance speech.
MLB and its support of gambling as long as it was financiers and big Wall Street brokerages doing it is so very sad. And they got into the ticket scalping business, too, in that very same way.
I bet someone’s in trouble. Presented to you by FanDuel
Realistically, MLB is so intertwined with the gambling industry, it brings in so much money, that they will never go back. So moral high ground isn’t something that MLB can ever occupy. It’s simply a matter of what they can tolerate from players, some of whom will have a problem controlling themselves.
Bottom line is no matter if it’s legal or not, the player still has a choice to participate or not and if he did, he violated the policy. Personal responsibility is a thing.
Ban sports gambling now.
All he has to do is say his translator screwed up (Hi Shoei) and he’ll get off with just a slap on the wrist.
Going by Passan’s article, this seems like a massive overreaction. He threw two balls too far out of the strikezone and they think he was doing it on purpose to win money for somebody?
Is there a way to blame this on the Dodgers?