Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz entered a not guilty plea in a Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday to charges that he participated in a scheme to rig specific pitches for the benefit of bettors. Ortiz appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo, the first major procedural step in the case since the indictment was unsealed on November 9.
Ortiz, along with his teammate Emmanuel Clase, is facing multiple counts, including wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests through bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. If found guilty on all counts, he could be looking at up to 65 years in prison.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for December 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
In a separate development, Emmanuel Clase was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport today after arriving on a flight from the Dominican Republic, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Clase is expected to be arraigned later today.
Indictment Outlines Alleged Pitch-Fixing Operation
Federal prosecutors followed a digital trail of texts and calls to link Ortiz and Clase to the prop-bet scheme, concluding that he agreed to throw specific pitches at agreed-upon times during two games in June 2025.
According to the indictment, Ortiz accepted a $5,000 payment tied to a pitch on June 15 and a $7,000 payment for another pitch on June 27.
Prosecutors allege that some payments were routed through third parties connected to the larger betting operation involving Clase, with bettors taking home at least $400,000 in fraudulent winnings on Clase’s pitches and at least $60,000 on Ortiz’s.
Court Imposes Strict Conditions on Ortiz’s Release
Following his not-guilty plea, Ortiz was released on a $500,000 bond under strict conditions, including GPS monitoring, surrendering his passport (which he’s already done), and limited travel to New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio.
The judge said Ortiz was an “enormous risk of flight,” adding, “The defendant has significant monetary resources and, importantly, has close connections in the Dominican Republic,” as he imposed the restrictions.
Although the defense objected, the judge also barred Ortiz from gambling and contacting any potential witnesses or co-defendants, saying: “These allegations here relate to conspiracy to influence sports contests by bribery.”
MLB Integrity & Micro Prop Bets Under Scrutiny
The case is the latest in a recent string of high-profile professional sports betting scandals, including one involving Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, that have put prop bets under increased scrutiny.
Since Ortiz and Clase were indicted, MLB and its sportsbook partners have moved to cap micro-bet, pitch-level markets at $200 and prohibit them from being included in parlays. The decision is designed to limit exploitation of granular in-game markets, something Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had previously urged the Ohio Casino Control Commission to do.
During media availability at the 2025 MLB general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas, player agent Scott Boras also weighed in on the integrity concerns surrounding prop betting.
“You have to remove those prop bets to make sure that the integrity of the players is not questioned, because there’s going to be all forms of performance questions given now to pitchers and such when they throw certain pitches to the back of the screen, or situationally, and really, we don’t want any part of it,” he said.
Boras added, “We want the players’ integrity never to be questioned.”
The change reflects the industry’s concern that micro-props, while popular with bettors, could introduce unique vulnerabilities when a single player’s intentional action, even one that goes unnoticed during a game, can be manipulated to affect betting markets.
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