Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, the two Cleveland Guardians pitchers accused of throwing rigged pitches as part of a betting and money laundering scandal, appear to be quickly growing apart in their defenses and approaches to their case.
The teammates appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday (Feb. 18) as a newly indicted co-defendant in the case, Robinson Vasquez Germosen, showed up to plead not guilty.
Vasquez is accused of acting as an intermediary between Clase and some of the bettors, who would allegedly receive information telling them in advance which pitches the reliever would be throwing.
As the hearing went on, the topic turned to Ortiz’s previously announced desire to sever his case from his teammate’s. There are two primary reasons for this: First, so he can have more time to prepare, as Clase has been adamant about sticking to the previously announced trial date of May 4, while Ortiz wants to push things back.
Second, as laid out in court filings and again on Wednesday, Ortiz’s defense is likely to state that Clase did share inside information about Ortiz’s pitches with bettors but that Ortiz didn’t know anything about it.
In a filing earlier this month, Ortiz’s legal team went into more detail. Clase, they said, may have “convinc[ed] Mr. Ortiz to throw certain pitches at certain times—ostensibly for baseball reasons as far as Mr. Ortiz was aware. Mr. Clase may have then relayed this advance information to the Bettors in furtherance of their conspiracy, without ever informing or involving Mr. Ortiz.”
On Wednesday, one of Clase’s lawyers, Lindsay Gerdes, weighed in. Ortiz’s possible plan to blame Clase means that the pitchers will have “antagonistic defenses,” she said, so she agrees with the move to try the cases separately.
Prosecutors strongly objected, saying that even if the trial had to be pushed back, all defendants should be tried together, since the same evidence and witnesses would be used against all of them.
The judge in the case, Kiyo A. Matsumoto, noted that she was unlikely to sever the cases as appeals court precedent weighed against such a ruling.
Even still, all three defendants, including Vasquez, wanted to push ahead on attempting to separate the cases. The amount of back-and-forth paperwork involved in that, Matsumoto said, make a May trial extremely unlikely. In fact, given her schedule, she suggested it could be pushed back to October.
“The reality is, I think we’re going to be adjourning the trial,” she said.
The hearing ended with Matsumoto asking all parties to propose alternate trial dates if May 4 becomes impossible. The parties are scheduled to meet again on March 6 to see if any progress has been made.
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.