Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase tipped bettors to his rigged pitches in text messages with coded language like “rooster” and “chicken,” prosecutors said in a revised indictment.
Newly retrieved messages show Clase used the coded language and even gave gamblers advance information about what pitches he would throw in the middle of games, prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, said in documents unsealed Friday. In the revised indictment, prosecutors added at least five games where they said Clase tipped gamblers to how he would pitch.
Clase and Luis Ortiz, who also pitches for the Guardians, were charged in November in a sports betting and money-laundering scheme in which they allegedly gave advance information to bettors on certain pitches they made during Major League Baseball games.
Clase, who has not appeared in a professional game since July, was one of the most elite closers in the league before MLB placed him on non-disciplinary paid leave as part of an internal investigation.
The revised indictment comes after lawyers for the pitchers last month submitted the account of a bettor who said he traded messages with Clase about cockfighting and not baseball, arguing that prosecutors wrongfully interpreted discussions. Clase ran a cockfighting operation in the Dominican Republic, where the practice is legal, defense lawyers said.
The government says that in one June 4, 2023, exchange, an unidentified gambler asked Clase about his first pitch, writing, “And the rooster the same?”
Clase responded, “Yes, the same rooster,” allowing bettors to earn about $33,000, prosecutors said.
Both Clase and Ortiz have plea