Major League Baseball announced today that Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz will be shifted to unpaid, non-disciplinary leave to start the 2026 season. Last year, both pitchers were placed on paid administrative leave as part of a sports betting investigation. Evan Drellich of The Athletic was among those to pass the info along.
“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,” the announcement reads. “This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz. 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.”
Both pitchers were placed on administrative leave in July of last year as allegations surfaced that they had taken part in a gambling scheme whereby they would intentionally throw certain pitches out of the strike zone for the purposes of impacting prop bets. That initial placement was to last until August 31st but was later extended until further notice.
The two pitchers were indicted by prosecutors in Brooklyn in November, charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. Both pleaded not guilty.
The trial was initially scheduled to begin in early May but Brant James of Yahoo Sports was among those to report that it has been pushed to November. MLB typically keeps an investigation open until the legal process is complete, so it seems possible that the two pitchers will stay on leave for the entire 2026 season.
If that comes to pass, it would lower Cleveland’s payroll, which is already one of the smallest in the league. RosterResource projects the club for $82MM in spending on this year’s roster. The Marlins are the only MLB club to come in underneath that. Ortiz has not yet qualified for arbitration. Clase signed an extension with Cleveland a few years ago and was slated to make $6MM this year. His deal has a 2027 club option worth $10MM with a $2MM buyout.
The club probably won’t run out and immediately spend those savings. There aren’t many free agents of note remaining on the market at this part of the calendar. It’s possible the extra budget space could impact their trade deadline strategy.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Yes!
Let’s take bets on if they ever pitch again
Who wants to take the bet they will pitch in MLB again? I don’t!
Only if I can same day parlay it
I want in on this action but can I have someone else place my bet for me for legal reasons lol.
Adios, freaking morons.
Edit:
Much more likely: They were ordered (and probably paid very handsomely) to take a dive.
It’s just yet another round of “Let’s pretend to make an example out of someone to make people think we care about rules and integrity, and that we crack down on rule-breakers”:
Tim Raines, Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe…. – Coke.
Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Ryan Braun…. – Roids.
This is just the continuation of The Pete Rose Total Fake, to make sure no one thinks that the billions that MLB makes from gambling is NOT legit, and that no one thinks that the games are rigged.
Stop falling for all of the BS, Patsies.
Hello, checking in from the real world.
You do understand just how many people over decades would have to be involved this grand conspiracy of yours, right?
And not a single person who worked all the way up to the top in their dream organization, whether it be player, umpire, exec, etc., not a SINGLE one has felt morally compelled to reject whatever financial incentive the league provided them to keep quiet?
I get that you derive self-worth out of this belief that you are simply above all of us patsies and understand how it all really works, might I recommend cooking?
Phew! Now the Dolans will only spend 60M instead of 70M on players. Thank God these multi-billionaires don’t have to spend as much.
My main concern as well.
Cheers fellow Brian Jacques fan!
Are they allowed to play in a different league? hmmm
California penal?
Power move by Major League Baseball lol.
Yet, MLB wants to make money on sports betting?
It’s ridiculous.
They just signed a deal to get 300 million more from a gambling house that lets you bet on basically anything.
The hypocrisy is strong in this one.
Hey! Not gambling, predicting. It’s legally distinctive because our regulatory system has failed catastrophically.
This is such a silly take. There is an obvious difference between a fan betting, opposed to a person who has influence over the game results.
If you don’t see the problem in promoting betting in and on your sport and the connection to these incidents, then no one can help you.
Reds – it is a very basic example of conflict of interest. It is common to hold employees to different standards than the general public to avoid conflict of interest or illegal activity in nearly every single profession.
Simple example.. pilots aren’t allowed to fly under the influence of alcohol. Yet the airlines serve alcohol to customers and airports are packed with bars. The employee and passenger are held to different standards. Is it hypocrisy on the part of the airlines? Of course not. There is a professional and legal expectation for the pilot that differs from the general public.. and it is common sense.
For whatever reason, you think that Clase sees a FanDuel sign at a stadium and he is somehow unable to comply with league conduct policies and the law.. absolutely silly.
For the record, I do not gamble and I hate all the gambling advertisements. But the rules for players are quite simple, well-advertised and everyone knows the harsh consequences.
100% correct. I worked for a beer distributor. That does not imply I had permission to drink and drive.
DodgerOK: That’s the ruse.
They should be able to pitch while the investigations works itself out. Ever heard of innocent till proven guilty?
Well they did gamble and that’s against MLB, they’re innocent on criminal charges though.
I understand Clase has only admitted to gambling on the roosters that he owns and trains for that purpose.
Pickles McGee
Clase has only admitted to gambling on the roosters that he owns and trains for that purpose.
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I used to do that, but I suspect that the conductors were using inside information.
The feds have a 99% conviction rate with 90% of defendants pleading guilty. That means they’re not bringing up a case without overwhelming evidence for a win.
MLB operates under the CBA and does not need the same burden of proof to discipline players. It’s in players’ contracts.
@YankeesBleacherCreature
I imagine MLB’s exception from anti-trust legislation is an important cog in the baseball machine.
I don’t think the antitrust exemption has anything to do with this matter. The NFL and NBA don’t have the same blanket exemption that MLB does, but they still have the power to discipline their players. When it comes to disciplinary issues they’re shielded from antitrust scrutiny because they are collectively bargained.
Congrats on dumbest comment in ten years.
You realize that you don’t have to be found guilty of a crime in a court to lose your job or be disciplined.. right?
If we are being perfectly honest, in today’s society you are guilty until proven innocent. That being said, they have both already admitted to wrong doing so what innocence is left to find?
BigPoppa69
Ever heard of innocent till proven guilty?
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That’s more of a court concept, not necessarily a private enterprise concept.
Ever heard of the difference between the court of law, and a baseball field? “Innocent until proven guilty” applies only to a government’s ability to strip you of your liberty. Highly suggest a civics class.
These men are heroes and are only being punished because of their ethnicity.
Your ragebait honestly isn’t very good
Slider…You are seriously warped.
When you don’t have anything place the race card.
The “You’re a Hater!!!” card is pretty much all anyone has left to play anymore, anywhere.
They cheated. Clase cheated dozens of times. Ban them.
If they have the evidence, they are both toast. No doubt about it.
foppert4: Please post your beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt valid evidence to substantiate your claim.
Because if you’re not 100% correct, then you’re just a Defamer.
And Defamers are pathetic a******s.
Please post your beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt valid evidence to substantiate your claim.
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Courts seldom have evidence like that. Things like that seldom exist in real life. When I got pulled over going 100, were the police 100% certain that the radar gun was 100% accurate?
Joe: So you’ve never heard of the courtroom requirement of “beyond a shadow of a doubt”??
Without that level of inferred validity-evidence, the guy’s innocent. Period.
Validity.. in another post you claim the this was staged by MLB, the league fixes games, some vague conspiracies around Gooden, Bonds, Rose and others..
In your words.. Please post your beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt valid evidence to substantiate your claims. Remember if you’re not 100% correct, then you’re just a Defamer
CK: I didn’t defame anyone.
(imbecile)
Defamation requires intentional malice that causes actual harm to the aggrieved party. Someone on a trade rumors comment section discussing a very public legal case causes no actual harm to Clase and Garcia.
Learn what you’re talking about please.
White: I know precisely what I’m talking about.
But thank you, you and the other Soy-Boys, for chiming in.
Morons
I’m a soy-boy because I have a better understanding of defamation than you?
Glad mlb did something. Seems fair to cleveland, now it has the lowest payroll in mlb baseball and classe hax money but ortiz?
Ron White, the comedian, developed an entire bit based on a phrase I can’t repeat because it’s trademarked that is appropriate to these players.
Tip of the iceberg and sports are the Titanic.
Huge problem but keep your ears covered and sing la la la.
Because that’s working just great.
Please provide actual evidence to your grand conspiracy
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Maybe if Clase had an interpreter this wouldn’t be an issue right now…
Ohtani is giving them 3 to 1 on being guilty.
Everyone talks bad about the Dodgers and I agree that this is an unsustainable situation we have with rehards to payroll but to me I get more angry at teams like the Guardians. If I could only choose one or the other I’d take a salary floor over a ceiling. I wish we could penalize them.
Remember, you are failing to consider the vast difference in available revenue between the Dodgers and Guardians. Local TV is a huge discrepancy. Until that revenue imbalance is addressed, MLB will remain broken. The current revenue system does not come anywhere close to evening revenue.
Leave it to a Hockey fan from Ohio to think baseball is “broken”
Get outta here, Johnny
Who died and made you boss, Johnsonville? I have every right to comment and will continue to comment whenever I choose to. Baseball has been and is broken.
In the current environment, without any substantial changes to the revenue sharing model, a salary floor probably comes with substantial league contraction. As Hockeyjohn mentions, the Dodgers are pulling in $334mm in TV dollars… the Guardians were doing around $50mm before the RSN model crumbled, so they are probably well below that now.
I don’t know what the right answer is but if yoy were just to implant a floor, I’m not sure that solves much. All the top talent is still going to the top few clubs. Everybody else will just have more money to spend on the leftovers.
More like shifted to the never playing ball again list. Threw away millions, for thousands. Morons.