Last July, for 25 days, Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase walked around the halls of Progressive Field, reclined his seat on team flights and sat beside fellow relievers in the bullpen. Business as usual.
By this time, the league office had already placed Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz on paid leave. Clase allegedly roped him into a pitch-rigging scheme that now has both pitchers set to stand trial in November on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Yet from July 3, 2025, until Clase, too, was placed on leave on July 28, the perennial All-Star acted as if nothing was brewing. “He just kept pitching,” one ex-teammate said.
One year later, mention Clase’s name near a Guardians executive and their face will turn a shade of ill green or irate red, as they think about the decisions made and the disrespect shown to teammates and the organization — especially during those 25 days when MLB had Clase in its crosshairs.
The saga has unfolded in court documents — many sealed, some revealed — filed to a judge in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y. Clase’s camp has blamed the whole ordeal on a misinterpretation of texts and calls pertaining to rooster fighting. The pitchers have tried to distance themselves from each other. The trial has been delayed six months. Federal prosecutors have sifted through tens of thousands of messages and documents. Cleveland fans continue to analyze every slider Clase ever spiked.
Guardians players struggle to understand how Clase, a bit of a recluse, kept it cool. Players from other teams closely tracked each development in the case, too. They wondered how this could transpire, and tried to play detective. Did Clase and Ortiz throw them any rigged pitches?
“I definitely remember going down the rabbit hole,” one player said.
Prosecutors say Clase’s illicit activity began in May 2023, but it didn’t come to light for more than two years. Has MLB done enough to prevent this sort of scenario from repeating itself?
In our annual anonymous player poll, in which The Athletic surveyed 100 players across 23 teams about a variety of MLB-related topics this spring, we asked exactly that:
More than half of the players who participated in the poll believe that the league has devoted sufficient attention and resources to help prevent players from partnering with gamblers. More than a quarter of the participants either didn’t have a strong opinion or didn’t feel they had enough knowledge on the subject to provide a proper answer. The remaining 18 players were dissatisfied with the safeguards the league has instituted to prevent a situation akin to the Clase-Ortiz scandal.
“It’s the first rule: Rule 21,” said one multi-time All-Star who believes the league has done its due diligence. “No betting on baseball.”
“We know the rules,” said an AL catcher. “But you have to police yourself, too.”
The Guardians contended last year there wasn’t anything more they could do from an educational standpoint to prevent such a fiasco. MLB officials deliver a PowerPoint presentation on the topic to each team during spring training. The rules are posted in every clubhouse.
“They come in here,” said an NL Central hitter, “and are like, ‘It’s black and white: You bet on baseball, you’re done.’ Pretty simple rule to follow.”
“Everyone knows it’s a lifetime ban,” said a veteran NL starter.
“It’s kind of like PEDs,” said an AL Central position player. “It’s well-known that you shouldn’t be doing that, so if you do it, I feel like that’s your decision rather than a lack of understanding.”
“They can’t control what people do if they want to make bad decisions,” said an NL hitter. “People will make bad decisions. But I think everybody knows the consequences.”
Many players relayed similar thoughts.
“At the end of the day, you can lead a horse to water,” an unsure AL Central pitcher said. “But are they going to drink?”
“It takes plain stupidity to do that,” said an NL reliever. “You can’t fix stupid.”
Or, in similar terms: “If you’re a turd of a person,” an AL pitcher said, “you’re always going to be a turd of a person. If you’re going to put yourself in that situation, you know exactly what you’re doing.”
“You can do all the precautions, you can put all the signs up,” said a then-AL pitcher, “but if people want to break the law, they’ll break the law. That’s the world. Everyone tells you you can’t steal, you can’t kill people, and people still do it.”
“People love to push their luck,” said an NL right-hander. “That’s why it’s called gambling and some guys gamble their careers.”
The Clase-Ortiz situation, however, could be just as useful a teaching tool as any, some players theorized.
“I think the players will be a lot smarter after everything that’s just gone on,” said an AL East outfielder.
“If you haven’t gotten caught, it’s not about if, but when,” said an AL Central pitcher.
“The whole deal in Cleveland seems like a pretty good start,” said an NL pitcher. “They got rid of one of the better players in baseball, which tells you, ‘We don’t allow this for anybody.’”
This isn’t so cut and dried for every player, though. Some players cited the league’s partnerships with sports betting companies as hypocritical or even laying the foundation for this sort of scandal.
“It’s tough, because it’s such a prominent thing in society now,” said an AL hitter. … “At this point, it’s such a huge moneymaker and money-driving business, it’s kind of the root of everything.”
“It’s in every stadium,” said an AL pitcher. “There’s f—ing ads everywhere — BetMGM, Bet Hard Rock, all this s—. There’s nothing saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ It would be too easy. We already saw it.”
“I think it’s a pretty hypocritical thing to take the stance they do on gambling and put such a negative stigma around players gambling,” said an NL hitter, “while also promoting DraftKings and FanDuel Sportsbook and those things. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
That line of thinking compelled certain players to answer “no,” that the league isn’t doing enough to prevent a situation like the one that has unfolded with Clase.
“MLB is going the opposite way,” said an AL pitcher, “and promoting it rather than helping players.”