Federal prosecutors say the FBI’s first break in the Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz case came from the betting itself.
Five bettors, they say, kept putting serious money on pitches from the former Cleveland Guardians right-handers - and the bigger the wager, the better the returns. That pattern, laid out in a recently unsealed 63-page filing, helped launch the investigation that ended with federal pitch-rigging charges against two pitchers now facing a Nov. 2 trial in Brooklyn.
The filing says the data pointed clearly to suspicious activity. In the government’s words: “The data all points in one direction, and that is toward the conclusion … that Bettor-1’s wagers on Ortiz and Clase were outside of their regular gambling behavior and highly suspect,” federal prosecutors wrote.
Clase and Ortiz have both pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering. The trial in U.S.
District Court in Brooklyn, New York, is expected to last about four weeks. Both pitchers have maintained their innocence.
The newly unsealed document became public after a judge ruled the FBI had enough in its early investigation to justify seizing the pitchers’ phones and other evidence. It offers the clearest picture yet of how investigators built the case.
According to prosecutors, the case began after Ortiz threw two pitches during the 2025 season that were far outside the strike zone, letting bettors cash in on wagers tied to those exact pitches. Betting platforms flagged the activity, Ortiz was suspended, and Clase followed soon after.
One bettor, whom agents described as being “closely associated with” Clase, allegedly placed wagers on Clase’s pitches about 200 times. Prosecutors said that bettor accessed sports betting platforms 103 times from Clase’s home on 30 dates.
The numbers got sharper from there. The bettor allegedly wagered more than 150 times on the speed of a single pitch from Clase, going 98-53 and finishing with a net profit of about $95,000. On 17 larger bets between $1,000 and $5,000, the bettor won 15 times, lost once and canceled one wager, prosecutors wrote.
The same bettor also found success betting on whether Clase would throw pitches outside the strike zone, winning 26 of 37 wagers and netting $28,526, according to the filing.
Prosecutors say the Ortiz wagers showed the same kind of jump. On the two pitches Ortiz is accused of intentionally throwing badly for bettors, the group put down $13,438 and won about $25,000 on June 15, 2025.
On June 27, 2025, Ortiz bounced a pitch well in front of home plate and it ricocheted to the backstop. The group bet $18,350 on that pitch and won $37,059, prosecutors said.
The FBI also compared the suspicious wagers to the bettors’ ordinary gambling habits, and the contrast was stark. Their average bets elsewhere ranged from $19 to $335, but on the pitches prosecutors say were rigged, the wagers jumped to between $500 and $3,250.
One example stood out: a bettor made 26 wagers on Ortiz pitches, all under $380. Then, on the two pitches prosecutors say were rigged, that same bettor placed five wagers of more than $1,000 and won every one, finishing with $53,000 in profit, prosecutors said.
In all, prosecutors say the bettors won about $460,000 on wagers tied to Clase pitches from 2023 to 2025 and the two Ortiz pitches. According to the filing, they then paid bribes or kickbacks to the pitchers.
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