Guardians pitchers called cheaters in fraud trial opening

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Urquiola told a jury in Brooklyn on Wednesday that Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are cheaters. She delivered the description during opening statements in a criminal fraud trial that has drawn attention to betting risks in baseball.

Urquiola said Clase befriended a sports betting gambler in the Dominican Republic in early 2023. The two shared interests in dominoes and cockfighting, activities legal in Clase's home country. According to the prosecutor, Clase eventually agreed to tell his new friend what kinds of pitches he would throw in specific games. This information allowed gamblers to win at least $460,000 on platforms that let customers bet on whether a pitch would be a ball or a strike.

The prosecutor stated that the defendants sold their pitches. She said Clase saw gamblers profiting from his pitches and decided it was not enough to just help his friends make money. She claimed he asked for kickbacks in return for the information. Urquiola said text messages describing rigged pitches and bets, sometimes using code words like chicken or rooster, will form part of the government's case. Testimony from some gamblers is also expected to support the prosecution's argument.

Clase is 28 years old and was the Guardians' former star closer. He is a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year. He had completed the fourth season of a five-year contract worth $20 million when the conspiracy and fraud charges were made public in November 2025. Ortiz, 27, is a starter who earned $782,600 for the Guardians during the 2025 season. Both pitchers have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges. They are on non-disciplinary leave from the club without pay while facing prosecution. They were arrested in November 2025 and have been free on bail since that date.

Prosecutors said Clase began providing information about his pitches to bettors in 2023. They said he recruited Ortiz into the scheme in 2025. Defense lawyers argued their clients were innocent. They said a gambler who befriended Clase falsely claimed to other gamblers that the pitcher was providing inside information. The defense argued the gambler tried to sell that information to others.

Michael Bronson, an attorney for Clase, described his client as a standout and a superstar with a reputation for shutting down teams in the final inning. Bronson said Clase attended school until age 15 in a small coastal village in the Dominican Republic before focusing on baseball. He said Clase was 25 in the spring of 2023 when he met Enoc Pena, a 41-year-old gambler. Pena made over 7,000 bets from 2023 to 2025. Bronson said Pena had a history of lying to get what he wanted.

Bronson stated that Pena did not see a peer or a friend, but a mark. The lawyer said Pena brought Clase food and picked him up at the airport in the Dominican Republic. In return, Clase gave Pena tickets to Guardians games and loaned him money. Bronson said Pena bragged to fellow gamblers that he was close to Clase and tried to sell them information. The lawyer claimed Pena was actually guessing which pitches Clase would throw. Together with other gamblers, Pena managed to lose over 200 bets on Clase's pitches. Bronson urged jurors to ask if his client would risk a fortune and his lifelong dream over a few thousand dollars.

Samuel Landes, an attorney for Ortiz, told jurors the pitcher had no contact with gamblers. He said only two of Ortiz's pitches are at stake in the trial and both were balls. Landes said that is not a conspiracy, just baseball. He asked Ortiz to stand and wave to the jury during his opening statement. Landes said Ortiz was victimized by Pena's lies. Those lies included allegations that Ortiz had accepted $5,000 for tips about his pitches. Ortiz had received $1.7 million in advance for future contracts and stood to make millions more. Landes asked why Ortiz would throw all that away for $5,000.

Landes said Pena had struck a deal with prosecutors allowing him to avoid prison and stay in the U.S. despite lying to banks and about his marital status on immigration forms. Pena was once listed as a possible witness at the trial. However, prosecutors said last week that they did not intend to put him on the witness stand.