Morning Briefing: More Details Revealed in Wild Guardians Betting Scandal

Good morning, Mets fans! One billionaire’s advice: Don’t spend like a drunken sailor.

Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged in an alleged scheme to fix pitches to win bettors hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an indictment unsealed Sunday in a Brooklyn, N.Y., court. The Guardian pitchers could each face up to 65 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Ortiz, 26, was arrested Sunday in Boston and is due to appear in court Monday. Clase, 27, was not arrested as of late Sunday and was out of the country, a law enforcement source told Zack Meisel of The Athletic. The pair have been on paid leave since July.

Clase is accused of being involved first, with the earliest example coming in a May 19, 2023, game against the Mets. Clase entered that game in the 10th inning and told bettors he would throw a pitch faster than 94.95 mph. Prosecutors allege bettors won $27,000 on that pitch. The Mets won that game 10-9 with three runs in the 10th off Clase. Francisco Lindor delivered a walk-off single.

Ortiz, who was traded from the Pirates to the Guardians in December 2024, allegedly joined in around June of this season. Clase’s conspirators allegedly made more than $400,000 in winnings and Ortiz’s made more than $60,000, per the indictment.

“Emmanuel Clase has devoted his life to baseball and doing everything in his power to help his team win,” read a statement from Clase attorney Michael Ferrara, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. “Emmanuel is innocent of all charges and looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

Ortiz’s attorney Chris Georgalis also denied the charges, saying in a statement to ESPN that his client “has never, and would never, improperly influence a game — not for anyone and not for anything.”

Latest Mets News

Outfielder Nick Morabito and C-OF-1B Chris Suero represented the Mets in the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game on Sunday.

Morabito, playing center field and batting leadoff, went 0-for-3 with an RBI, a stolen base and two strikeouts as the NL Fall Stars dropped a 5-4 decision to their American League counterparts. Suero, hitting seventh at DH, went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. (Box Score)

Morabito is 24-for-65 with a home run and 15 steals in 18 tries in 16 AFL games. He is third in the league in steals and ninth in batting average (.369). The 22-year-old hit .273/.348/.385 with six homers and 49 stolen bases in 118 games at Double-A Binghamton this season. MLB Pipeline ranks him the Mets’ No. 16 prospect.

Suero is 16-for-56 with five homers, a .931 OPS and is 7-for-7 stealing bases in 14 AFL games. He posted an .837 OPS in 74 games at High-A Brooklyn this year, but his OPS dipped to .697 in 41 games at Binghamton. He is the No. 15 Mets prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

The Mets prospects play for the first-place Scottsdale Scorpions, (18-8) who resume play Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET against Salt River (9-17). The AFL regular season concludes Wednesday and the playoffs will run Thursday-Saturday.

Latest on MMO

Kai Chang has more on the indictments of Clase and Ortiz.

John Wilson digs into David Peterson‘s ground ball rate, which seemed to coincide with his ERA over the season.

James Villani has a free agent profile on starter Griffin Canning.

James Villani examines the contract projections from six sources for free agents Pete Alonso and Edwin Díaz.

On This Date in Mets History

2020: Steve Cohen held an introductory news conference after buying the Mets for $2.475 billion. Some quotes:

• “One team wins the World Series every year, so that’s a pretty high bar. But if I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years – I would like to make it sooner – then obviously I would consider that slightly disappointing. I’m not in this to be mediocre. I want something great.”
• “You build champions, you don’t buy them. We’ve got a great core on this team, and we’re going to get better and I plan to make the investments we need to succeed. We want to win now, but we’re also building for the long term.”
• “What I do believe is this is a major-market team and it should have a budget commensurate with that.”
• “I can promise you we’re going to act like a major-market team. Are we going to act like drunken sailors? No.”

2014: Jacob deGrom wins the NL Rookie of the Year after going 9-6 with a 2.69 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 140 1/3 innings pitched. He earns 26 of 30 first-place votes. Billy Hamilton of Cincinnati finishes second with four first-place votes. Travis d’Arnaud and Jeurys Familia tied for seventh.

“You know the antiperspirant commercial? You never see him sweat,” pitching coach Dan Warthen said. “When you put Jacob in there with Wheeler and Harvey, they should all be synonymous.”

2014: The Mets signed free agent outfielder Michael Cuddyer, previously of the Rockies and Twins. He played the final season of his 15-year career in New York, hitting 10 homers and posting a .699 OPS in 117 games. He went 0-for-3 in the 2015 World Series.

Born on This Date: Shawn Green (1972), Butch Huskey (1971), Junior Noboa (1964), Kenny Rogers (1964), Omar Minaya (1958), Mike Vail (1951).

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