A federal prosecutor in Brooklyn told jurors on Wednesday that Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were "cheaters" who "sold their pitches," as opening statements began in a criminal fraud trial highlighting the risks that gamblers pose to baseball.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Urquiola said Clase struck up a friendship in early 2023 with a sports bettor in the Dominican Republic who shared the pitcher's interest in dominoes and cockfighting, which is legal in his home country. She said Clase eventually agreed to tell "his new friend" what kinds of pitches he would throw in certain games, allowing gamblers to collect at least $460,000 on platforms that let customers wager on whether an individual pitch would be a ball or a strike.

"The defendants, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, are cheaters," Urquiola told the jury.

Clase, the Guardians' former star closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges. Both are on non-disciplinary leave from the club without pay. They were arrested in November 2025 and have been free on bail since. Prosecutors say Clase began feeding information about his pitches to bettors in 2023 and brought Ortiz into the scheme in 2025.

Clase, 28, is a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year who had finished the fourth season of a $20 million, five-year contract when the charges became public in November 2025. Ortiz, 27, earned $782,600 as a Guardians starter during the 2025 season.

Urquiola said Clase watched gamblers profit from his pitches and "decided it wasn't enough to help his friends make money," so he demanded kickbacks. She said text messages in which the pitchers discussed rigged pitches and bets, sometimes using code words such as "chicken" or "rooster," along with testimony from some gamblers, would prove the government's case.

Defense attorneys countered that their clients are innocent. They said a gambler who befriended Clase falsely boasted to other bettors that the pitcher was supplying inside information and tried to sell them tips. Michael Bronson, representing Clase, said his client attended school until age 15 in a small coastal village in the Dominican Republic before dedicating himself to baseball and becoming "a standout, a superstar" known for shutting teams down in the final inning.

Bronson said Clase was 25 in the spring of 2023 when he met Enoc Pena, a 41-year-old gambler who placed more than 7,000 bets from 2023 to 2025 and had a history of lying to get what he wanted. Pena "didn't see a peer, a friend. He saw a mark," Bronson said. He said Pena brought Clase food and picked him up at the airport, while the pitcher gave him game tickets and loaned him money. As Pena bragged to fellow gamblers and tried to sell information, he was actually guessing at Clase's pitch selection and, together with other gamblers, lost more than 200 bets on Clase's pitches, the lawyer said. Pena was "selling lies," Bronson said, asking jurors whether his client would risk "a fortune and his lifelong dream over a few thousand dollars."

Samuel Landes, the attorney for Ortiz, told jurors his client had no contact with gamblers and that only two of his pitches, both balls, are at issue in the trial. "That's not a conspiracy. That's just baseball," he said. At one point Landes asked Ortiz to stand and be introduced to the jury, and the pitcher stood and waved. Landes said Ortiz was victimized by Pena's lies, including a claim that the pitcher, who had received $1.7 million in advance for future contracts and stood to earn millions more, accepted $5,000 for pitch tips. "Why would Luis Ortiz throw all that away for $5,000? He would not," Landes said.

Landes also said Pena reached a deal with prosecutors that allows him to avoid prison and remain in the United States despite lying to banks and about his marital status on immigration forms. Although Pena was once listed as a potential trial witness, prosecutors said last week they do not plan to call him to the stand.