Emmanuel Clase, the Cleveland Guardians reliever who is on administrative paid leave from his Major League Baseball team while under investigation for gambling, is reported to have found a winter league club.
Clase, 27, was going to pitch for LIDOM’s Estrellas Orientales in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, but that league barred his participation and that of his Guardians and Estrellas teammate Jose Ortiz shortly before opening night. Now, he’ll pitch for the Tiburones de La Guaira in Venezuela’s Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional this season, according to a report from El Extrabase’s Daniel Alvarez-Montes.
Última hora: Los Tiburones de La Guaira y el lanzador dominicano, Emmanuel Clase, han llegado a un acuerdo para su participación en la Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional, nos informan fuentes a @ElExtrabase. Aún no tiene fecha de llegada al país. Está en trámites para ello.
— Daniel Álvarez-Montes (@DanielAlvarezEE) October 21, 2025
Alvarez-Montes noted that it is unknown when Clase will arrive in Venezuela.
Clase pitched in LIDOM for the Estrellas 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 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.
Photo: Emmanuel Clase throws during the ninth inning in the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals, Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
