Cleveland Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase will have to defend themselves together against federal allegations that they manipulated pitches as part of an illegal sports betting scheme.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto denied Ortiz’s request to have his case tried separately from Clase, ruling Friday that Ortiz had not demonstrated that facing a jury alongside his teammate would substantially prejudice his right to a fair trial.
“Ortiz has not shown that a joint trial will result in ‘substantial prejudice’ to his right to ‘a fair trial,’ so severance is not warranted,” Matsumoto wrote.
Ortiz’s attorneys had argued that the scope of the allegations against their client is considerably narrower than the government’s case against Clase. More importantly, they maintained that one of Ortiz’s most realistic defenses could require acknowledging evidence against Clase while arguing that Ortiz himself was unknowingly pulled into the alleged scheme.
“Put another way, this defense would amount to an acceptance by Mr. Ortiz of the strength of the Government’s case against Mr. Clase, while explaining the evidence in a way that proves his own innocence, and would cast Mr. Ortiz as a victim of Mr. Clase’s scheme, rather than a knowing and willing participant,” Ortiz’s attorneys wrote in their February motion.
The judge wasn’t convinced that was enough to warrant separate trials.
Clase also sought to have his case separated from Ortiz’s and was denied. His attorneys did receive a limited severance involving alleged co-conspirator Robinson Vasquez Germosen, but only as it relates to one of the five charges Clase faces.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York allege Clase conspired with bettors on at least 15 occasions between 2023 and 2025 to manipulate individual pitches for so-called “microbets”; wagers on specific events within a game rather than its final outcome.
According to prosecutors, Clase would intentionally throw certain pitches outside the strike zone or below predetermined velocity thresholds, allowing people allegedly connected to the scheme to wager on those outcomes in advance.
The government alleges Clase successfully manipulated pitches in 12 games and intended to do so on three additional occasions but never entered those games.
The allegations against Ortiz are more limited in volume but no less serious.
Prosecutors accuse the right-hander of intentionally throwing pitches outside the strike zone during at least two games in 2025. Ortiz was placed on MLB’s Restricted List last June after the league began investigating suspicious betting activity, with Clase joining him roughly a month later.
Neither pitcher has returned to the Guardians.
Both were indicted and arrested in November and have pleaded not guilty.
The government’s case also involves Vasquez, a Dominican Republic citizen whom prosecutors describe as an associate of Clase. Authorities say Vasquez lived in New York and Massachusetts during portions of 2024 and 2025 and allege Clase arranged game tickets for him approximately 28 times.
A superseding indictment unsealed in February offered a closer look at what prosecutors contend was coded communication between Clase and Vasquez.
Authorities allege the pair used terms including “rooster” and “chicken” when discussing pitches.
Before Cleveland’s May 18, 2025 game against Cincinnati, prosecutors say Vasquez texted Clase, “throw a rock at the first rooster in today’s fight,” which investigators interpret as an instruction to throw a ball to the first batter Clase faced.
According to the indictment, Clase responded, “Yes, of course, that’s an easy toss to that rooster,” and later added, “yes, low.”
There was one significant problem for anyone allegedly waiting on that pitch: Clase never entered the game. Cleveland lost 3-1.
For the Guardians, the federal case has already altered the organization on the baseball side.
Clase was scheduled to earn $6.4 million in 2026, the final guaranteed season of his five-year contract, but MLB determined in March that Cleveland would not be required to pay him while he remains on the Restricted List. Ortiz, meanwhile, remains under organizational control but was not tendered a contract for the 2026 season.
That’s a considerable change from where both pitchers stood before the investigation.
Clase had developed into one of baseball’s premier closers. The three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year is already Cleveland’s franchise leader with 181 saves.
Ortiz was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates before the 2025 season and made 16 starts for Cleveland before being removed from the active roster amid MLB’s investigation.
Beyond the individual careers involved, the case strikes directly at one of baseball’s most sensitive issues in the legalized gambling era.
Microbetting allows wagers to be placed on individual pitches and plate appearances—the exact pieces of a baseball game that can theoretically be influenced by a single participant without determining the final score. That distinction is central to the government’s allegations against Clase and Ortiz.
Prosecutors claim the alleged scheme generated approximately $460,000 for the pitchers and their alleged co-conspirators.
Whether the government can prove those allegations beyond a reasonable doubt will now be decided with the two Guardians pitchers sitting on the same side of the courtroom.
Clase, Ortiz and Vasquez are scheduled to stand trial beginning Nov. 2.