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
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
Adios, freaking morons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
These men are heroes and are only being punished because of their ethnicity.
Your ragebait honestly isn’t very good
They cheated. Clase cheated dozens of times. Ban them.
If they have the evidence, they are both toast. No doubt about it.
Morons
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.
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