SI:AM | Emmanuel Clase Becomes Second Guardians Pitcher Under Gambling Investigation

Clase joins Luis Ortiz on paid leave as gambling investigation continues.

Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m really sick of hearing about a new sports gambling controversy every week. 

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In today’s SI:AM: 
⚾ Difference-making pitchers
🦬 Deion reveals cancer diagnosis
⚽ Successful Women’s Euro

More trouble in Cleveland

The Guardians’ trade deadline strategy just got blown up. 

Cleveland had been expected to field calls from teams hoping to acquire closer Emmanuel Clase, but now he won’t be going anywhere. 

Clase was placed on paid leave by MLB on Monday in relation to a sports betting investigation. He will remain on leave until at least Aug. 31. 

“The Guardians have been notified by Major League Baseball that as part of their sports betting investigation Emmanuel Clase has been placed on non-disciplinary paid leave per an agreement with the Players Association,” the team said in a statement. “We have been informed that no additional players or Club personnel are expected to be impacted. The Guardians are not permitted to comment further at this time, and will respect the league’s confidential investigative process as we continue to fully cooperate.”

Clase was expected to draw plenty of interest at the trade deadline. He’s a two-time winner of the Mariano Rivera Award as the best reliever in the AL and is under team control through the end of the 2028 season on a team-friendly contract. Trading him would have brought back a serious haul of prospects, but now that chance is gone. 

Clase is the second Guardians pitcher this season to become ensnared in a gambling investigation. Luis Ortiz has been on leave since July 3 and had his leave extended through at least Aug. 31 as MLB continues to investigate allegations of betting activity. Details are scarce on the Clase case, but we do know a bit more about what Ortiz is accused of. 

According to a report from ESPN, MLB is investigating suspicious gambling activity around two specific pitches Ortiz threw: the first pitch of the second inning against the Mariners on June 15, and the first pitch of the third inning against the Cardinals on June 27. In both instances, a gambling watchdog group flagged an unusual level of betting that the pitch would be a ball or hit-by-pitch. Ortiz spiked a breaking ball in the dirt on both occasions. In both cases, Ortiz went on to give up multiple runs in the inning and Cleveland lost the game. 

Clase is by far the most notable player to be investigated for gambling improprieties during the legalized sports betting era. Even Ortiz, while hardly a household name, is more established in his career than any other player to have been caught up in a betting scandal in recent years. Last year, MLB suspended four minor leaguers for one year for gambling violations. All four were reinstated last month. A fifth player, Padres utilityman Tucupita Marcano, received a lifetime ban. (Marcano played 149 games across three seasons in the big leagues as a sub-replacement level player.)

The Ortiz situation also highlights the trouble with the ability for bettors to wager on all sorts of picayune details of games. The outcome of a game and the score are a lot harder for one player to manipulate, but when gamblers can wager on things as precise as the outcome of a single pitch, it opens the door for malfeasance. It’s similar to what has happened in the NBA, where Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban for disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes and betting on NBA games. As gambling becomes more entrenched in American sports culture, more players are bound to be tied up in scandals like these. Maybe it’s time for leagues to crack down on the kinds of bets they allow sportsbooks to offer.

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