There’s a storm swirling in the Caribbean south of the Dominican Republic, and now a storm swirling in Domincan court regarding the barring of two players from the island nation’s winter league.
Pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Jose Ortiz, who were placed on administrative paid leave by Major League Baseball in July amid an investigation into gambling allegations, were barred from pitching in LIDOM for the Estrellas Orientales, who play in Clase’s hometown of San Pedro de Macoris.
A day after a report that Clase would pitch in Venezuela this winter with the Tiburones de La Guaira, the two pitchers are now suing the league and LIDOM president Vitelio Mejia in court in Santo Domingo, arguing that their banishment is in violation of the Dominican Constitution, which guarantees a presumption of innocence, the right to work, and the freedom to practice a profession without arbitrary restrictions, according to a report from Listin Diario, a Dominican newspaper based in the country’s capital of Santo Domingo.
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“We held meetings with the League to avoid going to court, but they weren’t willing to reverse that decision, so we’re suing both Vitelio Mejía and LIDOM,” Sheiner Adames, a lawyer for Clase and Ortiz, told Listín Diario’s Moises Mejia.
Clase pitched two seasons in LIDOM for the Estrellas, wearing the green and gold in 2019-20 and 2020-21, pitching in seven games in 2019-20 and one game the next season, posting a 1.13 ERA in eight innings. The two stints with the Estrellas were sandwiched around Clase’s lost 2020 season, which was lost to an 80-game suspension for performance enhancing drugs after the hard-throwing righty tested positive for Boldenone, an anabolic steroid.
Clase and Jose Ortiz were placed on non-disciplinary paid leave amid an investigation into proposition bets made on individual pitches thrown by Ortiz in the second inning of a June 15 start against the Seattle Mariners and the third inning of a June 27 start against the St. Louis Cardinals, according to multiple media reports. In both instances, unusual betting activity wagering that Ortiz would throw a ball or hit a batter with the first pitch of each of the innings in question. In both instances, Ortiz threw sliders that were well out of the strike zone.
Ortiz was placed on leave on July 3, while Clase was placed on leave on July 28, last appearing in a 6-4 Cleveland win over Kansas City on July 26, where he threw the ninth inning and earned a save. Both players’ leave was extended on Aug. 31, and thus neither pitcher appeared in the postseason for Cleveland. Major League Baseball has yet to announce the results of the ongoing investigation.
Court papers filed in the case indicated that Mejia’s decision to bar the two pitchers from playing for the Estrellas was handed down verbally and then formalized in a report issued Oct. 15, Listin Diario reported.
Adames, the lawyer for Clase and Ortiz, argued in the suit that the League acted outside its jurisdiction and without statutory grounds, and barring Clase and Ortiz from playing in the league this winter could cause economic and reputational damage. The suit argues that only a formal punishment issued by the MLB Commissioner’s Office or a court of competent jurisdiction could justify his temporary disqualification from LIDOM.
Clase and Ortiz hope to have LIDOM’s decision voided so they can rejoin the Estrellas.
Photo: Emmanuel Clase reacts after getting the final out of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
