"Insofar as there is any small thing in baseball, one pitch is as discrete as it can get. If you are a good pitcher-at one point, say, the best relief pitcher in baseball-you can work around a first-pitch ball, even when trying to close out the ninth inning of a game. If you have that skill and you could, hypothetically, help someone else out with very, very little potential consequence to yourself, well. It's not conspiring to throw a game. It's just one pitch."
"Which is to say that the logic for Emmanuel Clase-who was in the midst of a five-year, $20 million contract when he was indicted for manipulating prop bets -is not necessarily so difficult to understand. The new landscape of modern gambling permits betting on such low-stakes minutiae, and consequently makes bets easier to manipulate and, evidently, harder to detect. According to the indictment, Clase had been involved in the pitch-rigging scheme since May 2023; over the past two years, he had netted the bettors $400,000."
One pitch can be manipulated with minimal consequence, making single-pitch prop bets attractive and vulnerable. Emmanuel Clase, during a five-year, $20 million contract, was indicted for manipulating prop bets and had, since May 2023, helped bettors net about $400,000. Modern gambling allows wagering on low-stakes minutiae, making bets easier to manipulate and harder to detect. The indictment cites hundreds of instances, naming a couple from June 2023, and covers Clase's 2024 season in which he posted a 0.64 ERA and finished third in Cy Young voting. Detection accelerated after teammate Luis Ortiz joined the scheme and suspicious wagers were flagged.
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