The Guardians announced this morning that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association have jointly agreed to extend non-disciplinary administrative leave for hurlers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz “until further notice.” Clase and Ortiz had both previously been placed on leave amid a gambling investigation last month, but that leave was set to expire today. As the investigation continues, they’ll remain on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. Neither player presently counts against Cleveland’s 40-man roster, and both players will continue to be paid while the league looks into any alleged wrongdoing by the players.
“MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to extend the non-disciplinary paid leave of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz until further notice while MLB continues its investigation,” the statement read. “We will not be commenting further until the investigation is completed.”
The investigation had a massive impact on the Guardians this year. Acquiring Ortiz was a major piece of Cleveland’s offseason, as they shipped Andres Gimenez and Nick Sandlin to the Blue Jays in a deal that was headlined by Spencer Horwitz, who then was flipped to the Pirates in exchange for a package headlined by Ortiz. They brought him into the fold on the heels of a 2024 season where he pitched to a 3.32 ERA in 135 2/3 innings of work for the Pirates, and while he posted a middling 4.36 ERA in 16 starts for the Guardians prior to being sidelined by this investigation he was nonetheless a crucial piece of the club’s rotation mix.
As for Clase, his importance to the organization goes without saying. The three-time All-Star made his organizational debut in 2021 and in five seasons since he’s posted a sterling 1.84 ERA with a 2.36 FIP while racking up 181 saves and striking out 24.8% of his opponents. The 27-year-old enjoyed a career year last season that earned him a third place finish in AL Cy Young award voting thanks to an absurd 0.61 ERA in 74 1/3 innings of work in a 47-save campaign. Clase was crucial to the Guardians making the postseason last year, though he did falter in the playoffs as Cleveland fell to the Yankees in five games during the ALCS. A shaky start to the 2025 campaign caused Clase to post an uncharacteristic 3.23 ERA in 47 1/3 innings of work prior to being placed on leave this year, though he began to look more like his usual self after a tough April with a 1.85 ERA from May 1 onward.
The loss of both Ortiz and Clase left the Guardians significantly hampered headed into the second half this year, and while their 68-66 record is enough to put them just three games back of an AL Wild Card spot it’s hard to imagine the team putting together a brilliant September run to make the postseason. They’d need to overtake at least two of the Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Royals, and Rangers in order to do so, as all five of those clubs are ahead of Cleveland in terms of the Wild Card race at the moment. Even if the Guards do manage to sneak into October, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post notes that today’s decision officially rules both Clase and Ortiz out for the playoffs this year because players must be active within their organization on September 1 in order to be eligible to participate in the postseason.
