Lynnae Williams Journalist
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 BioWhen Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted back in November 2025 for allegedly rigging individual pitches to benefit bettors, the case appeared, at least on the surface, to be a limited betting scandal. However, as months have gone by and new details have come to light, it’s become much harder for Major League Baseball to keep the case in a box and classify it as an isolated incident.
Recent developments in the betting scandal involving the two pitchers make it clear that this case is much more than a routine criminal proceeding. With allegations continuing to pile up, a superseding indictment, and a likely fall trial, this MLB betting scandal is quickly becoming a test of whether the league’s integrity safeguards can keep up with the risk posed by prop bets on highly specific in-game moments.
As it stands, one of the biggest betting scandals in MLB history is heading into spring training with more smoke, not less. The latest developments help explain why.
Timeline of Key Events
- November 2025: Clase and Ortiz were first indicted in the pitch-rigging case.
- January 2026: Ortiz’s legal team asked to delay the start of the trial and requested that he be tried separately from Clase.
- February 5, 2026: A court filing from Ortiz’s legal team said that prosecutors had linked Clase to suspicious pitches across 48 games, well beyond what the government had initially laid out in the original case.
- February 13, 2026: The government unsealed a superseding indictment that added new details to the case, including allegations that the defendants used coded language to communicate, that a third defendant, Robinson Vasquez Germosen, was involved, and that Clase had manipulated a pitch in a 2024 playoff game.
- February 18, 2026: Clase, Ortiz, and Vasquez Germosen pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment, and the judge said the trial date would likely be moved from May to October.
What’s Changed Since the Scandal First Broke?
The biggest shift in the case since Clase and Ortiz were indicted in November is that it appears much broader than when it was first unsealed. On February 5, ESPN was the first to report that a court filing from Ortiz’s attorney said prosecutors had accused Clase of throwing suspicious pitches in 48 games over a two-year time span, a significant jump from the nine games federal prosecutors had listed in the original indictment.
Only a week later, on February 13, the government unsealed a superseding indictment that added new details but didn’t charge Clase or Ortiz with any additional crimes. In the superseding indictment, prosecutors added a third defendant, Robinson Vasquez Germosen, whom they accuse of acting as a middleman for Clase and his alleged co-conspirators in the Dominican Republic. Also, for the first time, prosecutors allege that Clase intentionally altered a pitch in the postseason against Detroit.
By the time Clase and Ortiz entered not guilty pleas to the superseding indictment on February 18, the case looked much more serious than a standard follow-up to the November charges.
MLB Has Already Reacted, but is it Enough?
MLB didn’t waste any time in taking action after news of the Clase and Ortiz pitch-rigging scheme broke last fall. Shortly after the indictments, the league announced that, in collaboration with its sportsbook partners, new safeguards would cap wagers on pitch-level markets at $200 and remove those bets from parlays. The league said the new measures would cover operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. market. On paper, it looks like a meaningful intervention.
Whether it goes far enough is another question altogether. CasinoBeats put that question to Matthew Wein, a security expert, founder and editor of the Secure Stakes newsletter, and former Department of Homeland Security policy advisor.
“I think the response to recent integrity scandals from sportsbooks, the media, fans, and other stakeholders are piecemeal and myopic and miss the systemic threats that connect the scandals,” he said. “Incremental steps like baseball’s limit on prop bets are, I think, a good start and a better alternative than outright bans — but more is needed.”
The harder question is whether those early guardrails will still look like enough as new allegations continue to emerge, not just in the MLB case but in the betting scandals that have rocked other leagues.
During an interview with CasinoBeats last December about why inside information is sports betting’s biggest vulnerability, Greg Brower, a former U.S. Attorney and Assistant FBI Director, said recent federal cases had already forced regulators and leagues to take a closer look at prop bet markets.
“There is a lot of focus on that, and there will be more scrutiny,” he said, adding that leagues and sportsbooks “need to be able to explain why prop bets are important, why they should stay, and what kind of mitigation or preventative measures can be put in place to make sure they’re not abused.”
That fits the current moment. We’ve seen MLB make visible adjustments to the betting market. However, the latest filings are now testing whether that response will hold up as the case deepens.
What to Watch Next
The next immediate question in this unfolding case is timing. During a February 18 hearing in Brooklyn federal court, U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto said the trial date would likely be moved from May 4 to October. If that happens, one of baseball’s biggest integrity scandals could land smack dab in the middle of the postseason, as a “pre-game show” to the World Series.
That is exactly the type of collision between optics and real reform that sports leagues are still trying to manage. As Wein told CasinoBeats, “I think the leagues are trying to do the minimum to maintain fan trust while not impacting the revenue they receive from digital sportsbooks and other associated platforms, which in the end winds up being more of a PR exercise than actual reform.”
He took that point a step further: “I think the danger from these scandals, as they linger and don’t lead to any substantive change, will be diminished trust. In the end, this could very well have the result of angry and overzealous fans or bettors resorting to violence. It’s the same trend that has been playing out in the political and civic sphere the last several years, where people see politics being a ‘rigged game.’”
And that’s the real pressure point right now, not just for MLB but all the leagues that have faced betting scandals over the past few months.
When CasinoBeats spoke to Declan Hill, a University of New Haven associate professor and longtime investigator of sports corruption, about the recent betting scandals in January, he put it bluntly: “Sports leagues have gotten into bed with the devil. They’re dancing with the devil. They’ve been seduced by the devil, and they’re really at risk of losing credibility.”
The next test is not just whether the Clase-Ortiz case stays in the headlines. The real question now goes beyond MLB. It’s whether the guardrails leagues have built around modern sports betting will still look credible as integrity scandals continue to play out across sports.
