Lynnae is a journalist covering the intersection of technology, culture, and gambling. She has more than five years of experience as a writer and editor, with bylines at SlashGear and MakeUseOf. On the iGaming side,...
Read Full BioOn November 9, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments against Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase de la Cruz and Luis Leandro Ortiz Ribera in the Eastern District of New York, charging them with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy.
The indictment alleges that Clase and Ortiz conspired to manipulate bets on individual pitches during Major League Baseball (MLB) games, at times accepting “bribes and kickback payments—funneled through third parties—in exchange for rigging pitches.”
Besides spelling out their alleged crimes, in many ways, the indictment reads less like a run-of-the-mill sports scandal and more like a digital forensics report, as it details text messages, phone calls, and cash withdrawals tied to rigged pitches in almost real-time.
The players’ use of digital technology to coordinate these bets left an electronic footprint that would ultimately expose their conspiracy.
According to the indictment, “the defendants—two Major League Baseball pitchers playing for the Cleveland Guardians—conspired with bettors to rig pitches in professional baseball games so that the bettors would profit from illegal wagers made based on that inside information.”
The indictments didn’t come out of the blue. The MLB placed Clase and Ortiz on non-disciplinary paid leave on July 3, later extending it through August 31. On August 31, the league changed the players’ leave status to “until further notice,” as it continued to investigate allegations of gambling-related conduct.
Back in July of this year, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine urged the state’s Casino Control Commission to ban prop bets amid the investigation into the two pitchers, saying, “The evidence that prop betting is harming athletics in Ohio is reaching critical mass…The prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly.”
And today, MLB announced new limits on pitch-level markets in collaboration with its sportsbook partners, capping them at $200 and removing those bets from parlays. The league explained, “These new measures—implemented across sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the US betting market—are intended to mitigate integrity risks, and maintain the transparency and data access benefits that the regulated sports betting market provides.”
How Betting Scheme Worked
The indictment describes how Clase used a series of text messages and phone calls to alert bettors to specific actions he planned to take during MLB games. In multiple instances, within minutes of sending these messages, his co-conspirators placed wagers through online sportsbooks and won bets tied to those pitches, which prosecutors said were sometimes thrown into the dirt or well outside the strike zone.
Prosecutors say Clase “used his cellular phone in the middle of MLB games involving the Cleveland Guardians—contrary to MLB rules—to coordinate with Bettor-1,” a clear violation of league rules that prohibit cellphone use during games.
In one example from May 17, 2025, Clase texted the bettor asking if he was “ready.” The bettor said, “[b]ut of course.” Ten minutes later, that bettor and several others won about $10,000 by wagering that a pitch thrown by Clase would be both a ball or a hit-by-pitch (HBP) and slower than 97.95 mph.
In another exchange on April 26, 2025, phone calls show that a similar pattern unfolded. “At approximately 3:16 p.m., in the middle of the game, Clase sent a text message … A few seconds later, Clase and Bettor-1 had a phone call that lasted approximately two minutes. Four minutes later, Bettor-1 and several of the Bettors won approximately $11,000.”
Screenshots presented in the indictment show Clase allegedly throwing pitches “into the dirt well before home plate,” which allowed betters to capitalize on prearranged prop bets such as Ball/HBP and Pitch Speed.
Ortiz joined the betting scheme in June 2025. In the lead-up to a June 15 game against the Seattle Mariners, he “agreed with the defendant Emmanuel Clase de la Cruz that in exchange for approximately $5,000, [he] would throw a ball for his first pitch in the second inning.”
Before the start of the game, a bettor exchanged text messages with Clase, where he asked “[h]ow are we doing?” and “‘[e]verything under control there?” before the two spoke on the phone. Not long after the conversation, two bettors used an online platform to place a $13,000 wager on that single pitch, resulting in a $26,000 payout when Ortiz threw the ball low and to the left of home plate.
Almost two weeks later, prosecutors say Clase withdrew $50,000 in cash “as captured by bank security camera footage.” He gave $15,000 to a co-conspirator “to use to wager on Subject Pitch-2” before a June 27 game. That pitch was thrown for a ball, netting bettors $37,000.
Prop-Bet Vulnerability
What has raised eyebrows in this case and other recent betting scandals, including those involving NBA and NCAA athletes, is the use of prop bets to manipulate the outcome of specific plays that take place in seconds.
In these cases, who won or lost the game had no impact on the wagers placed by the bettors. Instead, it was the micro-moments of play that determined whether a bet won or lost, such as single pitches, shots, or possessions that a player could subtly influence without affecting the final score.
As detailed in the indictment, the inside information came before the pitches, and wagers were placed almost immediately, sometimes while the pitcher was still on the mound. Prosecutors estimate the bettors won at least $450,000 from these coordinated wagers.
The indictment makes it clear that league rules were breached on multiple occasions. MLB rule 21 states: “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
MLB rules also ban the use of phones during a game except for limited personal reasons, and also says: “Baseball Personnel may not ask others to place bets on their behalf, or otherwise benefit financially from, or assist with, bets placed by others.”
The MLB rules leave little room for ambiguity or interpretation. The actions described in the indictment represent a direct challenge to the league’s long-standing commitment to preserving fair play.
Following the Digital Trail
Reviewing the indictment, it becomes clear that the very technology that enabled this betting scheme also provided prosecutors with a roadmap to unravel it. Investigators pieced together cellular-telephone records, electronic transfers, and betting platform data to reconstruct a minute-by-minute pattern of texts, calls, and deposits.
Clase was captured by surveillance cameras withdrawing $50,000 in cash; minutes later, the same bank’s cameras recorded a co-conspirator redepositing $15,000. Other evidence included photographs and audio clips, including one where Clase instructed Ortiz to have an associate falsely claim a payment was “for a horse” if questioned by bank staff.
The phone calls and text messages, bank withdrawals and transfers, and sportsbook data show how digital systems can both enable and expose this type of manipulation. From bank transfers to text messages, every exchange created a timestamped record that investigators could match against betting outcomes.
When everything was said and done, the same systems that made it possible to profit from rigged pitches also made it impossible to hide them.
