The trial for Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges related to an alleged pitch-rigging scheme, could be postponed until October.
Clase and Ortiz, who are free on bail, were initially charged in November with four counts of conspiracy for their alleged roles in a scheme that helped gamblers win at least $460,000 through prop bets placed on their pitches. They allegedly received bribes or kickbacks for their participation.
Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto didn’t reschedule the May 4 trial, but suggested she’ll ultimately shift the date to the fall, according to the Associated Press.
In a superseding indictment unsealed late last week, prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged a third individual, Robinson Vasquez Germosen, who also pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. Vasquez, prosecutors say, served as a middleman between Clase and their alleged co-conspirators in the Dominican Republic.
The rewritten indictment accused Clase of using code words related to roosters and chickens when coordinating with co-conspirators about the scheme and, for the first time, alleged that Clase rigged a pitch during the 2024 playoffs.
Hours before a game against the Cincinnati Reds on May 18, 2025, Clase received a text: “Throw a rock at the first rooster in today’s fight.” Clase replied: “Yes, of course, that’s an easy toss to that rooster,” and later clarified he would throw it “low.”
Clase had originally been accused of predetermining nine pitches between May 2023 and June 2025, though the superseding indictment listed several other pitches in question, plus three examples in which Clase allegedly coordinated to rig a pitch, but never entered the game to see it through.
Among the new accusations is Clase intentionally spiking a slider in Game 1 of the 2024 American League Division Series. He bounced his first pitch to Detroit’s Matt Vierling, the first batter he faced.
“It almost hit the grass,” Vierling said this week. “And then he still struck me out. 101 (mph) at my front shoulder.”
Indeed, Clase needed only seven pitches after the alleged rigged slider to retire the Tigers in order in the ninth inning.
Bettors are said to have wagered on either the velocity of the first pitch of an inning or the result of the pitch (a ball or a hit-by-pitch), or parlay both options for a greater payout.
Two of Ortiz’s pitches are under scrutiny. He is alleged to have joined in on the scheme in June 2025. Twelve days later, he was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave as Major League Baseball launched an investigation following an alert from the Ohio Casino Control Commission. Clase joined Ortiz on non-disciplinary paid leave about three weeks later.
Ortiz’s lawyers filed a motion last week to sever the two pitchers’ trials, arguing that to prove Ortiz’s innocence, they may have to assert Clase’s guilt. They stressed that Ortiz never communicated directly with anyone involved other than Clase, and characterized Ortiz as “a victim of Clase’s scheme, rather than a knowing and willing participant.”
The government, however, pushed back against that notion in a filing this week, arguing that “finger pointing is not a basis for severance.” Should the judge side with the government in that regard, all three defendants — Clase, Ortiz and Vasquez — would stand trial together. Both Clase and Ortiz are alleged to have left Guardians tickets for Vasquez.
Ortiz’s lawyers also asked for the trial to be shifted to a later date, while Clase has asked for a speedy trial. If the judge does move the trial to October, it would allow for more time to sift through more than 60,000 audio messages, 19,000 PDFs, 8,000 videos and 8,000 photos from the phones of Clase and an unidentified bettor.
The judge recently granted Clase permission to travel to Arizona to reside closer to his agent, Kelvin Nova, as well as to train. Neither pitcher, however, is permitted at an MLB facility while on the restricted list.
The Guardians are still waiting to learn whether they are on the hook for the pitchers’ salaries. Ortiz is due a figure near the league minimum of $780,000. Clase is owed $6.4 million for 2026. The club was required to pay both pitchers their entire 2025 salaries, even while they were on leave.