The 23-page federal indictment against Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz for alleged pitch-rigging that circulated on Sunday details why both pitchers are now facing decades of prison time. The document answers a lot of the questions about why they've been on administrative leave since July, but one big question remains unanswered:
How the hell are are prop bets legal?
Suspicious pitches on 0-0 counts were at the heart of the investigation into Clase and Ortiz. Online sleuthing dug up a number of odd misses from this season, but the indictment says that Clase had started as far back as May 2023, helping bettors win at least $450,000 over the course of more than 100 bets. Ortiz is accused of joining the scheme in June, which seems like terrible timing for him.
But while being able to gamble on individual balls and strikes seems bad enough, the indictment explains that velocity was also involved, which explains why the slider was the weapon of choice.
Similarly, on or about June 3, 2023, the Cleveland Guardians played an
MLB game against the Minnesota Twins. After receiving advance information from the defendant EMMANUEL CLASE DE LA CRUZ about a specific pitch that CLASE intended to throw, Bettor-I and several of the Bettors won approximately $38,000 on Betting Platform-2 by placing multiple bets that a pitch thrown by CLASE would both be a Ball/I-IBP and would be slower than 94.95 mph. A screenshot of video footage of the pitch (with the ball highlighted in a red box)---which CLASE threw slower than 94.95 mph and into the dirt well before home plate-is included below.
Not to defend Clase, whom the indictment says was misguided enough to text bettors in the middle of games, and receive the sorts of payments the Black Sox earned, and not adjusted for inflation. But if you're already the sort who can disregard Rule 21 as a mere suggestion, it's probably pretty easy to justify wayward first pitches as a sort of free money code, especially if you're talented enough to pitch around it. The Athletic's Zack Meisel detailed a bunch of suspected appearances, and Clase ultimately succeeded in nearly all of them (Ortiz did not, in another indication he wasn't cut out for this life).
Major League Baseball hasn't responded in any official capacity, and there might not be one immediately in the offing. Due process is one reason, as Clase and Ortiz's lawyers have professed innocence. The league could also say that the indictment is proof that the league and sportsbooks are capable of policing the matter, while illegal gambling rings might go undetected.
But assuming MLB won't rush to untether itself from casinos, prop bets seem like an easy target for compromise, because it won't take long for fans to chalk up any aberration as a product of pitch-rigging, whether as a light joke or actual conspiracy theory fodder.
A pitcher catching a spike and falling off the mound while throwing a curveball into the on-deck circle in the waning moments of a six-run game is ordinarily an accident that's forgotten about by the end of the at-bat. Now that's potentially "payment for a horse," or "for repairs at the country house," to name two bogus explanations for financial exchanges in the indictment. It doesn't take much to ruin the way ordinary misfortune is discussed, and given how much ordinary misfortune occurs over the course of 250-300 pitches times 15 on a standard MLB weeknight, every day is theoretically a fresh smorgasbord for degenerates.
Is there a White Sox angle? Not really
The most interesting thing involving Andy Pages this month was his game-saving catch in the bottom of the ninth of World Series Game 7. The second-most interesting involving Andy Pages this month is being the guy identified as ruining an alleged parlay bet by turning a first-pitch ball into a strike.
At approximately 3:36 p.m., in the middle of the game, Bettor-I and Bettor-2 each placed wagers totaling approximately $4,000 (including a parlay bet) that a pitch thrown by CLASE would be a Ball/HBP. CLASE threw a pitch that appeared to be a ball, but the batter swung, resulting in a strike and leading Bettor-I and Bettor-2 to lose their wagers.
Approximately 20 minutes after Bettor-I lost the wager on May 28, 2025,
Bettor-I sent a text message to the defendant EMMANUEL CLASE DE LA CRUZ-a .gif image of a man hanging himself with toilet paper. Even though the Cleveland Guardians won the game, approximately 10 minutes later, CLASE responded to Bettor-I with a .gif image of a sad puppy dog face.
This seems like the role Lenyn Sosa was born to play, but Clase's trackable first pitches against the White Sox all appear to be above-board, because the biggest first-pitch misses all look like max-effort cutters.
At least for now, federal investigators have produced evidence that Clase was willing to compromise the integrity of the sport, but not the AL Central.
