The Cleveland Guardians are not having it easily, with Major League Baseball’s franchise facing an investigation into some of its best players over their alleged flouting of gambling rules and involvement in sports betting.
Second Player from the Guardians Is Facing an Investigation Linked to Betting Patterns
The league has moved to expand its initial investigation into the team, targeting Emmanuel Clase, a second pitcher to have been named, following the case of Luis Ortiz. The investigation will now see Clase placed on “non-disciplinary” paid leave through August 31, 2025, a rather long period for a professional baseball player on an MLB contract.
The Guardians have also confirmed the news in an official statement, assuring the public and fans that the team was collaborating with the MLB and that everyone wanted to ensure that the facts surrounding Clase and Ortiz’s case would be clarified.
Similarly, the franchise added that no further players are expected to be impacted under the current investigation. Ortiz, too, has been placed on non-disciplinary leave through August 31, after he was initially supposed to return after July 17.
The case of Ortiz involves the player throwing suspicious pitches that matched uncharacteristic betting activity in specific moments of different games, which was quickly flagged as aberrant betting behavior that defied expectations and odds.
The first offense supposedly occurred against the Seattle Mariners Arozarena on June 15, and the second one on June 27, when he was playing against the St. Louis Cardinals’ Pedro Pages.
The suspicious betting patterns were flagged by IC360, which uses automated software to prove that such inconsistent betting behavior could be, in fact, tied to match-fixing or other offenses. While the team has been affected in two individual cases, nothing yet points to the players’ cases being related at all.
Athletes Increasingly Facing Stiff Penalties Over Gambling
This does not mean that if found wrong, they would not get off lightly, as the players are, in fact, now facing the possibility of a lifetime ban if there is evidence that they were purposefully gaming their plays to produce certain betting outcomes.
Such bans have been issued to many athletes in the past, and recently, across different sports and leagues, with Jontay Porter becoming the first athlete in the NBA to have been banned permanently from the sport.
When it comes to baseball, though, it is Pete Rose’s story that matters. The man was banned from competing professionally but has forever remained in the good graces of one person – President Donald Trump, who supposedly influenced Commissioner Rob Manfred in lifting the ban on the man posthumously.