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Alden Gonzalez
LAS VEGAS — In the wake of a gambling scandal that has engulfed Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, agent Scott Boras on Wednesday called for the removal of prop betting, citing its potential harm to player integrity.
Clase and Ortiz were charged by federal prosecutors Sunday with fraud, conspiracy and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ortiz, 26, pleaded not guilty in Brookyln federal court Wednesday and was released on a $500,000 bond that included several conditions. Clase, 27, is scheduled to be arraigned at the same courthouse Thursday.
Earlier this week, Major League Baseball announced that prominent U.S. sportsbooks will establish a nationwide $200 betting limit on baseball wagers centered on individual pitches and prohibiting such bets from being included in parlays in an attempt to decrease the incentive for manipulation. But Boras, baseball’s most powerful agent, would like to see those prop bets eliminated entirely.
“You have to remove those prop bets to make sure that the integrity of the players is not questioned, because there’s going to be all forms of performance questions given now to pitchers and such when they throw certain pitches to the back of the screen, or situationally, and really, we don’t want any part of it,” Boras told a large media contingent from the general managers meetings. “We want the players’ integrity never to be questioned.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called for the Ohio Casino Control Commission to end player-specific micro betting entirely.
“I realize it’s a really complicated issue,” said Chris Antonetti, the president of baseball operations for the Guardians. “I’m grateful for the efforts by Major League Baseball and Gov. DeWine to try to find some way to address what seemed to be a problem, so hopefully that’s a step in the right direction.”
Boras’ client list this offseason is topped by star-level position players like Cody Bellinger, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso, as well as starting pitchers Dylan Cease, Ranger Suarez and Tatsuya Imai, the Japanese right-hander whom Boras said will be posted by the Seibu Lions next Wednesday.
Executives throughout the industry still are navigating preliminary meetings to finalize their offseason plans, but Boras claimed that “many teams” are “ramping up” to spend this winter. That comment comes in the early stages of labor talks that are widely expected to become contentious and many fear could jeopardize the 2027 season. The current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of the 2026 season. A lockout could come shortly thereafter.
Boras, though, does not expect the threat of one to impact spending this offseason.
“Historically we haven’t seen that because teams always want to be their best,” Boras said. “The bottom line is teams understand they don’t have to pay players when there’s strikes.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.