Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, the two Cleveland Guardians pitchers charged with rigging pitches as part of a sports betting and money laundering scandal, are still on track to go to trial on May 4—but things may not stay that way.
At a hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday (Jan. 15), lawyers for the two players sparred with prosecutors, and sometimes with Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, over a number of issues culminating with the trial date itself, which was set last month.
Prior to the hearing, Ortiz's side had asked for an extension of time to file motions, from Jan. 20 until March 20. It became clear that this request, if granted, was likely to move the entire trial back, perhaps by months, due to the effect it would have on subsequent pretrial deadlines and because of other obligations of the judge and the lawyers.
On Thursday, an attorney for Ortiz, Elizabeth Geddes, said that she would welcome a significant delay. As the discussion continued, Geddes formally requested that the trial be pushed back because there was so much evidence to go through—much of it that needed to be translated from Spanish—that her team would not be ready in time.
"In light of the enormous amount of discovery, we will not be prepared for a May 4 trial date," she admitted.
Geddes said that she "believes" she will soon file a motion to have Ortiz's case severed from Clase's for a number of reasons, including so that Clase can stick to the earlier date, something his lawyers said they wanted to do.
Judge Matsumoto indicated that until a formal motion to sever the cases was in front of her, she would not change the date.
"We need to stay with the trial date that we've decided," she said. She did push the deadline to file motions back to March 13—not as far as Geddes wanted but a significant extension from the previous January deadline.
Earlier in the hearing, Clase made clear that he was sticking with his attorneys despite a potential conflict. It was revealed earlier this week that his lawyers had interviewed at least four potential witnesses in the case who all denied any knowledge of or participation in any criminal betting scheme.
Prosecutors still plan to call at least some of these witnesses, who they say "will testify that they provided false information to defense counsel and knowingly signed a false declaration in their presence."
This raises a potential conflict of interest for Clase, as his lawyers will not be able to use the information they gleaned in those interviews to undercut the credibility of the witnesses. Clase made clear he was aware of that conflict and wanted to stick with his current lawyers, a decision Matsumoto approved after extensive questioning of both the pitcher and his lawyers.
Clase's lawyer, Lindsay Gerdes, explained that her team had "workarounds" for the situation, including possibly bringing in an outside lawyer to question the witnesses at issue.
Clase and Ortiz are accused of conspiring with corrupt sports bettors to manipulate pitch outcomes in multiple Major League Baseball games between 2023 and 2025. Prosecutors allege the pair agreed to throw specific pitches—slower sliders or intentional balls—after receiving bribes, allowing bettors to place winning “prop” and “parlay” bets using insider information.