Cleveland Guardians standout relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave by MLB on Monday, in what sources told iGB could be a watershed moment in the league’s quest to maintain sports betting integrity in the post-PASPA era.
MLB said that the Guardians closer has been placed on leave through 31 August, pending an ongoing sports betting investigation. The announcement came several days before Thursday’s trade deadline. Prior to the news, Clase had been considered one of the top closers potentially available by trade.
“Per an agreement with the MLBPA, Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase has been placed on non-disciplinary paid leave through games on 31 August while MLB continues its sports betting investigation. We will not comment further until the investigation has been completed,” MLB wrote in a statement.
The long-dominant reliever is the second Guardians pitcher this summer to be ensnared in a sports betting investigation. The league previously opened a probe of starter Luis Ortiz in connection with betting activity surrounding his performance.
A case can be made that Clase is the most prominent MLB player to face a betting-related penalty of any kind since PASPA. A three-time All-Star, Clase won American League Reliever of the Year honours last year.
“The Guardians have been notified by Major League Baseball that as part of their sports betting investigation Emmanuel Clase has been placed on non-disciplinary paid leave per an agreement with the Players Association,” the club wrote in a statement. “We have been informed that no additional players or club personnel are expected to be impacted.”
Suspicious patterns in microbetting
While MLB has not disclosed if a certain pitch sequence from Clase is under suspicion, ESPN reported on 3 July that the league’s probe of Ortiz involves two Guardians games from last month.
One of the games involved so-called microbets on an Ortiz pitch on 15 June against the Seattle Mariners. Less than two weeks later, Ortiz tossed a first-pitch ball in a subsequent start against the St Louis Cardinals. Both pitches, according to ESPN, are being scrutinised amid reports of unusual betting patterns.
Drawing comparisons with high-frequency trading on financial markets, microbetting allows customers to wager on individual plays that can be graded in an instant. In both cases, Ortiz badly missed the strike zone, while bouncing the pitches to the plate.
A first-pitch slider by Ortiz in the top of the third versus St Louis drew particular scrutiny since it missed the zone entirely before caroming off a backstop.
Although MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has not criticised legalised sports betting in general, he has gone to some lengths to express his disdain for microbetting.
“Certain types of bets strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable – things where it’s one single act and doesn’t affect the [game] outcome necessarily,” Manfred said.
Unlike straight wagers where customers can make five-figure bets on the result of an MLB game, operators set low dollar limits for microbets. As a result, if an illegal syndicate is behind the wager, it would take a good deal of structuring to produce a meaningful return. However, the prompt response in the Ortiz matter provides some indication that integrity monitoring is working, an industry source told iGB this month.
A potential ban on microbets?
As with the initial portions of most investigations, Clase deserves a presumption of innocence before the probe is completed.
Nevertheless, a sports betting insider told iGB on Monday that the investigation could prove to be troubling for the league.
In light of a federal sports betting case where former Toronto Raptors centre Jontay Porter admitted to conspiring with a match-fixing syndicate, the source believes that MLB should be “very worried” that a syndicate could have been involved if suspicions about the Guardians pitchers’ performance prove true.
The source also drew comparisons between MLB’s situation and a predicament faced by the NCAA two years ago. In the case of college basketball, NCAA President Charlie Baker pushed for a nationwide ban on college props after a rash of incidents involving bettors’ harassment of players over their performance.
To Baker’s credit, the NCAA proved to be enormously successful in lobbying states on the importance of having college prop bans, the source noted. Meanwhile, with frequent delays between each pitch, baseball is more “conducive” to microbetting than almost any sport, he added.
“I have a feeling that we might see MLB start petitioning for the ban of microbets,” said the source, on a condition of anonymity.
Last week, a New Jersey assemblyman introduced a bill that seeks to prohibit microbets at licensed sportsbooks across the state. Authored by Dan Hutchison (D: Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester), the bill aims to safeguard the integrity of sports, according to a press release from the New Jersey Assembly Democrats.
MLB’s other recent betting troubles
Of the four major North American pro sports leagues, MLB became the last after PASPA to announce a sports betting-related suspension. Last June, the league banned San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano permanently following a comprehensive investigation. The league’s investigation determined that Marcano made at least 25 wagers on Pittsburgh Pirates games while he was a member of that team. When banning him, MLB also announced the suspension of four other players for gambling-related violations.
Then, in February, MLB announced that it had terminated former umpire Pat Hoberg for violations of the league’s gambling policy. During the course of the league’s investigation, MLB found that Hoberg shared a legal sports betting account with a professional poker player and a friend who wagered on baseball.
Separately, in a notorious betting incident that did not involve behaviour by a player, the former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani was sent to prison on charges related to having bet hundreds of millions of dollars with an illegal bookmaker.
Ippei Mizuhara admitted to embezzling more than $16 million from Ohtani to repay gambling debts and began serving a 57-month prison sentence last month. No wrongdoing was found on the part of Ohtani, who was called a “victim” by MLB.
Cleveland star closer Emmanuel Clase has been placed on leave through August due to issues surrounding sports betting, according to MLB.