League’s investigation expands
A second Cleveland Guardians pitcher has been put on leave in connection with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) investigation into possible league sports betting violations. Star closer Emmanuel Clase is on “non-disciplinary” paid leave until August 31, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
It is unknown at this time what the league is looking at regarding Clase.
Clase’s leave follows that of Luis Ortiz, his teammate on the Guardians’ pitching staff. It is unknown at this time what the league is looking at regarding Clase. With Ortiz, Passan and ESPN’s David Purdum reported that there was unusual betting activity on two specific pitches he threw in June.
The Guardians released a statement Monday afternoon confirming the disciplinary action and saying that the club has “been informed that no additional players or Club personnel are expected to be impacted.”
Teammate threw fishy pitches
Luis Ortiz was originally placed on the same non-disciplinary paid leave until July 17, but that was later extended until August 31. His investigation, as mentioned, has to do with suspicious betting activity surrounding prop bets that he would throw a ball on the first pitch of a specific inning in two games last month.
The first was against the Seattle Mariners’ Randy Arozarena in the bottom of the second inning on June 15. The slider is clearly a ball out of the strike zone, bouncing low and outside. The second instance was on June 27, the first pitch of the top of the third against the St. Louis Cardinals’ Pedro Pagés. It was another breaking ball that was nowhere close, bouncing a foot or two outside and going to the backstop.
Sports betting integrity firm IC360 flagged unusually high betting action on those two pitches from accounts in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, and sent alerts to sportsbooks in June.
People are naturally assuming the investigation into Clase also has to do with the possibility that he intentionally threw balls for gambling purposes – and some have already been posting analyses of his pitches on social media – but no specifics have been made public.
Player banned in 2024
Both Ortiz and Clase would be at risk of a lifetime ban from MLB if they are proven to have violated the league’s gambling rules. The most infamous of them, probably the most well-known in all of American sports, was the ban of all-time hits leader Pete Rose. Rose was recently posthumously reinstated by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
placed 231 wagers on MLB games
A little more than a year ago, the league placed infielder Tucupita Marcano on the permanently ineligible list for running afoul of the league’s gambling policy. While a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022 and 2023, he placed 231 wagers on MLB games.
The part that ended his MLB career was that 25 of those bets were made while he was on the Pirates’ active roster, though he was out with an injury at the time. Most of Marcano’s bets were parlays and he did very badly: he gambled $87,319 on MLB games and only won 4.3% of his bets.
