NEW YORK.- The trial against the pitchers of Major League, Emmanuel Class and Luis Ortizaccused of accepting bribes from bettors for manipulating pitches, began this Monday in New York with jury selection.
The Dominicans, pitchers of the Cleveland Guardianshave pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges and are suspended without pay while their judicial status is determined.
Prosecutors maintain that Clase and Ortiz agreed in advance with their co-conspirators what specific pitches they would make and that bettors used that inside information to place fraudulent bets that earned them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Dominican right-handers were removed from the Guardians in July 2025 when the authorities began this investigation, for which they were charged last November.
According to prosecutors, Clase became involved in the scheme in 2023 with bets on the speed and type of throws he would make.
“Class often threw these rigged pitches on the first pitch of each at-bat,” prosecutors said in an earlier statement.
“To make sure certain pitches were called balls, Clase threw many of them into the ground, well outside the strike zone.”
The closer, 28, received payments from bettors in exchange for information and sometimes provided money to finance the scheme, according to the charges.
Ortiz, 27, joined the scheme in 2025, according to prosecutors, who mention a game in June last year in which the starter received $5,000 for agreeing to make a certain pitch after conspiring with Clase.
Together, the Dominicans would have helped make profits of around $450,000 with fraudulent bets.
Unusual betting move
The illegal scheme came to light after betting platforms detected an unusually high volume of bets on Ortiz’s first pitch in a game against the Seattle Mariners on June 15, 2025 and in another match that same month against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud, five years for conspiracy to influence sports competitions through bribery and 20 years for money laundering, among others.
