NEW YORK -- A government witness testified Friday in the federal trial of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz that the inside information he used to bet regularly on Clase pitches in 2023 dried up the next season due to increased scrutiny from the gambling scandal involving Shohei Ohtani's interpreter at the time.
Luis de Aza Baez said he placed dozens of bets and won thousands of dollars by wagering on the velocity of select Clase pitches during the 2023 season, "because I had inside information." Clase is accused of conspiring with bettors to rig 18 pitches over three seasons.
De Aza Baez said that when he asked for more information on Clase pitches in 2024, he was told that because of "what was going on with Ohtani, there was no more information like that."
Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers' superstar, came under scrutiny in March 2024 after ESPN reported that millions of dollars had been sent from his bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation. His longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, later pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts and is currently in prison. Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing.
De Aza Baez, who worked as an Uber driver, told prosecutors that he began receiving information about the pitches from Enoc Pena, an associate of Clase's, in 2023. De Aza Baez said the tips often came through a group chat titled "Uber Inc." that Pena started and included other men who have been referenced in the case and also worked for the ride-share company in Massachusetts at the time.
Prosecutors showed a screenshot of a text message Clase allegedly sent to Pena on Sept. 30, 2023, when the Guardians were scheduled to play the Detroit Tigers, that talked about "killing the first two chickens." De Aza Baez said the message was instructions to bet on a Clase pitch to the third batter of an inning, but only if Clase had retired the first two batters. Clase did not appear in the game.
Clase's defense has argued that mentions of roosters and chickens in such communications often were referencing cockfighting, a legal activity in the Dominican Republic, where Clase and others in the case are from.
De Aza Baez said he became friends with Pena as well as Robinson Vásquez Germosen and Luis Arismendy Paca Méndez, who are co-defendants in the case, while they were all living in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Paca Méndez, who has pleaded not guilty, is not participating in the trial after being extradited from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. on Oct. 19.
De Aza Baez said he met Clase when Vásquez and Pena brought the pitcher to his house for a birthday party on April 28, 2023, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, where De Aza Baez had moved. He met Clase again a few days later at a relative's house. Prosecutors showed a video of the gathering, with Clase playing dominoes on a table featuring a Boston Red Sox logo. The Guardians were in town for a series against the Red Sox.
De Aza Baez said he never received any information directly from Clase, only from Pena. De Aza Baez said he did not have an agreement with Pena but gave him money because he "almost always" won using the information to bet on Clase's pitches. De Aza Baez acknowledged opening a DraftKings betting account under his wife's name to increase the amount he could wager and win on his Clase bets. De Aza Baez also said he included the Clase pitch bets in parlays to maximize payouts.
De Aza Baez acknowledged that he had agreed with the government to forfeit $69,000 from his winning bets on Clase and would "tell the truth" in exchange for prosecutors dropping a wire fraud charge related to the case.
Clase, Ortiz and Vásquez have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges of wire and honest services fraud, sports bribery and money laundering.
"Our defense is the same today as it was in opening: This is a case about big talk and small bets," Vásquez's attorney Todd Spodek told ESPN after Friday's hearing. "We're confident leaving that judgment to the jury."
The trial will continue next Thursday in Brooklyn.