A scheduled spring fraud trial for two Cleveland Guardians pitchers accused of colluding with sports bettors to rig bets and betray “America’s pastime” is likely to be postponed until October, a federal judge said on Wednesday as the men pleaded not guilty to a rewritten indictment.
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto left a May 4 trial date on the books, but indicated that she would probably move it to the fall in the coming weeks.
Pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, speaking Spanish, entered not guilty pleas through a translator to a rewritten indictment in Brooklyn federal court.
Photo: Reuters
No new charges were in the superseding indictment unsealed on Friday last week, as prosecutors charged a third individual with serving as a middleman between bettors and Clase. That person also pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
The pitchers were first charged in November last year with accepting several thousand US dollars in payoffs to help two gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least US$460,000 by placing more than 100 in-game prop bets and parlays on the speed and the outcome of certain pitches. The charges include wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests.
The rewritten indictment added allegations that Clase used code words like “rooster” and “chicken” in communications about pitches to be thrown.
Prior to a game against the Cincinnati Reds a May 18 last year, Clase received a message to “throw a rock at the first rooster in today’s fight” and responded with: “Yes, of course, that’s an easy toss to that rooster,” the indictment said.
However, Clase never entered the game and could not fulfill the plan to throw outside the strike zone to the first batter he faced, it added.
A day earlier, Clase broke MLB rules by using his cellphone in the middle of a game against the Reds to signal to gamblers that a pitch would be outside the strike zone, enabling them to win about US$27,000, the indictment said.
Clase, the Guardians’ former closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have been on nondisciplinary paid leave since July last year. Their teammates are just starting a training camp for the new season. The team’s home opener is on April 3.
Clase and Ortiz, who are free on bail, left the courthouse separately after the hearing. Neither commented. Lawyers for both men have insisted their clients never colluded with gamblers.
Lawyers for Ortiz have asked that he be tried separately, saying in court papers that if Clase passed along Ortiz’s pitching strategy to gamblers, he did so without Ortiz’s knowledge. They also noted that Ortiz is accused of throwing only two pitches that drew scrutiny over a 12-day span, while Clase is charged with colluding with gamblers on numerous pitches since 2023.
“Mr Clase may have abused his relationship with Mr Ortiz as friends and teammates by convincing Mr Ortiz to throw certain pitches at certain times — ostensibly for baseball reasons as far as Mr Ortiz was aware,” the lawyers wrote.
They said they might present a defense to the jury that would cast “Ortiz as a victim of Mr Clase’s scheme, rather than a knowing and willing participant.”
The Guardians and the MLB have said they are cooperating with the investigation. The MLB said it contacted federal law enforcement when it began investigating unusual betting activity.
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