Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are the subjects of MLB gambling investigations.
Cleveland without the top pitchers indefinitely, but they may have played last games.
Cleveland is fading in the AL wild-card standings in August.
Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the teams who will play in the 2026 Field of Dreams Game.
PHOENIX — They no longer have lockers in the Cleveland Guardians clubhouse.
There are no jerseys or equipment to be found.
There’s no sign they even played for the Guardians.
Their names are spoken only when brought up by outsiders, and then, only in a whisper.
It’s as if Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and starter Luis Ortiz never existed, vanishing into the night.
“This definitely is a huge loss to the team,’ Cleveland’s new closer Cade Smith tells USA TODAY Sports. “They’re gone. We don’t know if they’re coming back. But we have no choice but to forget about it and move on.
“We’ve got no choice.’
MLB’s investigation has been underway since July into suspicious betting activity on games that Clase and Ortiz appeared. They are on paid administrative leave until Aug. 31. Yet, considering the evidence, MLB and the players union are expected to extend their leave through the end of the regular season and into the winter.
The painstakingly slow process is necessary considering livelihoods are at stake.
If Clase and Ortiz are guilty of betting on baseball, or if they intentionally influenced prop bets, they are done for life.
Oh, sure, they could pitch in Mexico. Maybe Japan or Korea, too. But they would never, ever be able to put on another MLB uniform.
What a waste, particularly for Clase, if found guilty, throwing away a star-studded career where he was on an early Hall of Fame trajectory, leading the American League in saves each of the past three seasons.
“I’ve talked to them a little bit,’ Guardians first baseman Carlos Santana says. “I don’t really know what to say. I hope they’ll be OK. But I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. None of us do.’
It was Ortiz who first went on disciplinary leave July 3 while MLB opened a gambling investigation, and three weeks later, Clase’s name surfaced, too.
Just like that, they were gone, never having a chance to say good-bye, and not knowing if they’ll ever see their former teammates again.
Their absence is what made the Guardians’ torrid performance, an American League-best 23-9 from July 7 to Aug. 14, to climb right back into the AL Central race so stunning. Instead of wilting, they were thriving, pulling within 5 ½ games of the first-place Detroit Tigers and just one game out of the wild-card race.
Now, all of a sudden, it is over.
They are 12 ½ games behind the Tigers and 4 ½ games back in the wild-card race.
Technically, the Guardians are still alive, but when you lose seven of eight games after already enduring a 10-game losing streak, and your new closer blows back-to-back games, there’s precious time remaining to recover.
The Guardians, to their credit, refuse to feel sorry for themselves. They’re not blaming the gambling investigation for their downturn spiral. They try to pretend that it’s no different than losing a player to injury.
“Honestly, we’ve lost lots of guys to injuries or guys who have been optioned or whatever,’ Guardians veteran catcher Austin Hedges says. “In baseball, it’s not a 26-man roster. It’s more like a 40-, 50-, 60-man roster. Our group is so resilient, whatever 26 we’re going to throw out there, we’re going to believe in them.’
The Guardians won’t come out and say it publicly, knowing that Clase and Ortiz are innocent until proven guilty, but considering that MLB’s investigation into Shohei Ohtani’s potential ties with an illegal bookie was cleared in a matter of days, it’s rather worrisome that this investigation is still ongoing with no immediate resolution.
The Guardians have no choice but to play the waiting game, but they also don’t expect either one to walk through the clubhouse door again this season, wondering if it’s the last time they’ll even see them.
“That day really sucked, I mean, it’s definitely a blow when you lose two great players like that,’ Guardians All Star outfielder Steven Kwan says. “I think we gave ourselves one day to mourn and get over it, but then you got to jump back into it.
“We’d love to see them back, but we also have to be prepared if they’re not.’
Guardians first baseman Carlos Santana says he still keeps in touch with Clase and Ortiz, but like everyone else, has no idea about the findings of the investigation, wondering what will happen to their future.
“I keep in touch, I talk to them, make sure they’re OK,’ Santana says. “Hopefully, everything will be fine. No matter what, we’ll be friends.’
The Guardians are cautious speaking about Ortiz and Clase with the ongoing investigations, but they refuse to let their absence torpedo their chances for the postseason.
Besides, even if Clase wasn’t under investigation, he might have been dealt at the trade deadline. Clase, who has averaged 44 saves a year the past three seasons, was under team control for 3 ½ more years. The Guardians would have raked in a haul of prospects considering the robust relief market.
“Our message to the guys was that we don’t know what we don’t know,’ says Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. “All we can control is us working hard every day. I mean, our guys are resilient. These guys have handled things over the last year and a half, so they’re built for it.’’
While the Guardians were able to survive their absence for several weeks, reality is starting to hit now. You don’t lose perhaps the best closer in baseball and a healthy starter who made 16 starts and pitched 88 ⅔ innings, and shrug it off.
The Guardians are paying the price with their skid. Their last four losses have all been by one run, with Smith blowing saves in their last two games.
“It’s a sticky situation losing those guys,’ injured Guardians pitcher Ben Lively says. “You just hope for the best case possible. But we’ll be fine. We got Clark Kent over there [in Smith].’
The Guardians believe that Smith is ready for the closer’s role, and while there certainly will be growing pains, are prepared to ride it out while he makes the adjustment to being in the pressure cooker of the ninth inning.
“It’s different pitching the ninth,’ says Smith, who has been successful in four of seven save opportunities with a 3.55 ERA since replacing Clase. “There’s more on the line. It’s the last inning of a game. Fans get into it. Everyone’s aware of the situation. If you fail, it feels like you let everybody down.
“But it doesn’t mean that my job changes. My job is to still go out and put up a zero and compete and leave everything I have on the field. I’m going to make sure that trust is not misplaced with the way that I work, the way I carry myself, and how I bounce back.’’
Really, it’s no different for the entire Guardians’ team. Everyone counted them out when they lost 10 games in a row. Everyone counted them out when Ortiz and Clase were placed on administrative leave. And everyone is counting them out now that they’ve fallen four games back in the wild card race after a series of gut-wrenching losses.
“We’ve been through a lot as a team,’’ Vogt says. “These guys have been punched in the gut over and over. But they’ve handled it like pros.’’
Fair or not, they’ve got no choice.
MLB expansion, realignment news
The firestorm reaction to commissioner Rob Manfred’s comments that MLB will have wholesale realignment when baseball expands is comical considering this has been the plan all along, dating back to at least the past decade.
Expansion still is scheduled to take place in 2031 or 2032, Manfred tells owners, with Salt Lake City and Nashville as the two heavy favorites.
This will be the first expansion since Arizona and Tampa Bay in 1998, and apparently in the last quarter-century, it has been forgotten that baseball planned to expand again once the stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa were resolved.
While the projected expansion cities have changed over the years, the original plan MLB floated was revealed back in 2017 by BBWAA Hall of Fame writer Tracy Ringolsby in a column published by Baseball America.
The concept, which had Montreal and Portland as the original sites, was to have four eight-team divisions, not eight four-team divisions:
East: Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Washington.
North: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, *Montreal, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Toronto.
Midwest: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Texas.
West: Arizona, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, Oakland, *Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
That schedule would have teams playing 12 games against each divisional opponent, and three games against each of the teams in the three other divisions.
The realignment would reduce travel, with only the Rockies, Twins and now perhaps Salt Lake City playing divisional games outside their own time zone.
It will still be at least another six years before expansion and realignment actually takes place, but in the meantime, well, it generated plenty of conversation in the dog days of summer, even though it’s old news.
Around the basepaths
– The 2026 MLB schedule will be released Tuesday and is set to feature a return to the Field of Dreams venue in Iowa featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins.
The season will start Thursday, March 26, and will also include a return to Mexico City where the Arizona Diamondbacks will play the San Diego Padres.
– The Baseball Writers’ Association of America, for the first time, will have a Relief Pitcher of the Year award for both leagues in 2026. It’ll be the first addition to one of BBWAA’s prestigious awards since 1983 when it included the AL and NL Manager of the Year.
The award was the brainchild of Hall of Fame writer Jayson Stark, reminding writers that Mariano Rivera, considered the greatest reliever of all time, never once won a single award by the BBWAA, while no reliever has won the Cy Young since Eric Gagne in 2003.
– It should be quite the emotional game Sunday for Los Angeles Angels veteran starter Kyle Hendricks, who will face the Chicago Cubs, his former team of 11 years, for the first time in his career.
It also may be be the last time.
Hendricks, 35, could retire after the season.
– Brutal news for Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, and a huge blow to the Phillies’ World Series hopes. Wheeler is out for the season and likely will miss the start of next season. Wheeler, who had a blood clot removed, has been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and will undergo surgery that will sideline him for six to eight months.
The Phillies certainly have plenty of pitching depth, but Wheeler is one of the true aces of the game and will be sorely missed in October.
Mathew Bowyer, who ran an illegal gambling operation that accepted in excess of $300 million worth of bets from Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, will be sentenced on Aug. 29 at the Santa Ana, Calif., federal court.
Mizuhara is currently serving a 57-month sentence.
– If the Yankees still don’t have enough scars from that 2004 ALCS when they blew a 3-0 lead to the Boston Red Sox, they now have lost eight consecutive games to the Red Sox for the first time since 2009.
– There will be no bigger position player on the trade block this winter than Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman. Rutschman became expendable once the Orioles signed 21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo to a team-friendly eight-year, $67 million contract that won’t pay him more than $1 million annually until 2029. Basallo, their prized prospect who made his MLB debut just five days before agreeing to the contract, is the first player to receive a contract extension since GM Mike Elias joined the Orioles in 2018.
Basallo becomes the everyday catcher as Rutschman hits the injured list, priming him for a potential move to first and part-time catcher.
Look for him to be wearing another uniform come spring training.
– While there already is rumblings of a potential work stoppage threatening the 2027 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field, the Cubs have been guaranteed that they would host the 2029 game as a contingency plan.
– Hey, whatever happened to all of the drama we were promised with the expanded playoffs?
Here we are, a week before the calendar turns September, and outside of playoff seeding, the field is virtually set.
The only real drama in the American League is whether the Kansas City Royals can squeeze past the Yankees or runner-up in the AL West for the final wild-card berth. And in the National League, the only team that has a chance to crash the wild-card dance is the Cincinnati Reds.
Little wonder why MLB will again push for the postseason field to be expanded to 14 teams in the next labor agreement.
– The Toronto Blue Jays, who made the gutsiest move at the trade deadline to acquire Shane Bieber, who has not pitched a big league game since April 2, 2024, marveled watching him dominate the Miami Marlins in his first start in 502 days. He struck out nine and gave up just two hits and one run in six innings.
Yep, just like ol’ times.
“It felt very familiar,’ Bieber told reporters after the game.
Bieber’s return makes the Blue Jays awfully scary in October.
– Kudos to Chicago Cubs All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker for continuing to post while he played with a hairline fracture in his ring finger suffered June 1. He refused to make excuses for his struggles. Tucker had his best offensive month in June after the injury, hitting .311 with a .982 OPS, including five homers, nine doubles only for his numbers to crater the next six weeks. He hit .218 with a .675 OPS in July with one homer and three doubles, and just .138 without an extra-base hit until homering Friday night.
Tucker could have easily used his injury as an alibi with his numbers eroding his free agent value, but not once did he even mention his finger being broken until Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy spilled the beans.
_Brutal news for Orioles closer Felix Bautista, who was the 2023 Mariano Rivera award winner as the American League’s finest reliever with his 1.48 ERA and 46.4% strikeout rate, who needs shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum that will sideline him once again for an entire season. It’s his second major surgery in the last two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2024.
While it leaves the Orioles badly needing a closer, the free-agent market should be plentiful with Robert Suarez, Edwin Diaz, Aroldis Chapman, Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.
– The Houston Astros, fearing that All-Star closer Josh Hader is done for the season, decided to sign Craig Kimbrel instead of bringing back former Astros closer Ryan Pressly. Kimbrel has pitched only one major league inning this season after being released by Atlanta.
– Maybe the Pirates should have traded starter Mitch Keller at the deadline, after all.
Keller has been shelled this month, yielding a 8.64 ERA in his last five starts while yielding at least seven hits and five runs in three of his last four starts.
– Former GM Doug Melvin, Walt Jocketty’s closest friend in baseball, reminded everyone at Jocketty’s memorial service in Minneapolis last week of their special bond as fellow GMs who even vacationed together with their families each winter:
“Walt and I had this buddy agreement that if our teams were on losing streaks or not performing well, we would call each other to give each a boost,’ Melvin said, “because when you win everyone knows you and when you lose nobody calls you.
“So, in 1988, I was with the Baltimore Orioles as an assistant GM and farm director and we lost our first six games. So, Walt calls and says, ‘Remember our agreement, hang in there don’t get down.’
“So, Walt calls the next five days in a row because we were now 0-11, ‘Hang in there and don’t get down.’
“So, every day I get a call from Walt and how many times can you say, ‘Hang in there and don’t get down.’
“It was 10 more days as we started the season 0-21.
“After our first win, I heard from a lot of people but not from Walt. Finally, I called him and said, ‘I did not hear from you to say congratulations on the first win. He said, ‘I did not need to call because you are on a hot streak now.’
“I did not think 1-21 was a hot streak.’
– Brian Sabean, the brilliant architect of the San Francisco Giants during their World Series run, was heartbroken this week to learn that he lost another one of his trusted advisers with the passing of Lee Elder. Elder, and the late Pat Dobson, Ted Uhlaender and Dick Tidrow who were all invaluable to Sabean and instrumental to the Giants’ success.
Also, Roy Clark, the brilliant scout for Atlanta who later went to the Washington Nationals and Kansas City Royals, passed away Friday.
– So much for all of the consternation where the Rays would play their home games in the playoffs.
Turns out they’ll be sitting home as they sit six games below .500 for the first time since 2018.
– The Robert Clemente documentary will premier in theaters on Sept. 12, three days before Roberto Clemente Day. Clemente’s three sons, Luis, Roberto Jr. and Roberto Enrique, produced the film along with the likes of NBA legend LeBron James and business partner Maverick Carter.
– Do you realize that Brewers outfielder Isaac Collins, 28, could become the oldest player to win Rookie of the Year outside the five previous players 28 or older who played in the Negro Leagues or in Japan?
– Is there a manager more entertaining than Brewers skipper Pat Murphy, who might have set an all-time record of having six kids accommodate him to the podium after their victory Friday night?
He not only broke the news that Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker was playing hurt, but provided his own scouting report on Cubs rookie Owen Caissie:
“Big-time prospect,’’ Murphy says. “He’s 6-foot-12 and he’s a redhead. There’s not too many redheads in the big leagues that can’t hit. Check it out. They don’t bring redheads up here if they can’t hit.’’
– Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star right fielder Corbin Carroll is on pace to hit 35 homers, 20 triples and steal 20 bases this season.
The only player in baseball history to accomplish the feat?
Willie Mays in 1957.
Mays, Jim Bottomly (1928) and Jimmy Rollins (2007) are the only players to even hit 30 homers and 20 triples in a season.
“There’s a lot of jet fuel in that,’ D-backs manager Torey Lovullo says of Carroll’s speed. “He’s coming. I’ve never seen anybody faster. I played the game, I’ve been a coach a long time. I go back to Deion Sanders and the type of speed I remember.’’
– Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich believes the Brewers still don’t get the respect they deserve with MLB’s best record, but he’s perfectly fine with it.
“Just tell us you don’t think we’re good,” Yelich told reporters. “That’s kind of how we take it. Everyone just thinks we stink still, but we don’t care. It just kind of feeds a little bit into what we’re all about. Just count us out. People don’t believe we can win.’’
– The Athletics are well on pace to break the club’s single-season record of allowing 220 homers, set back in 1964 when they played in Kansas City at Municipal Stadium.
– While the Marlins appeared to fleece the Orioles at last year’s trade deadline by acquiring outfielder Kyle Stowers, who turned into an All Star, it turns out that starter Trevor Rogers has turned out just fine with Baltimore.
He set a franchise record with a 1.41 ERA in his first 12 starts this season, the best in franchise history, and matched only by 24 starters since 1920.
– Prayers to former Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell, who announced that he has been diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer.
– Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw quietly hit all of his incentives that maxed out with Thursday’s start, paying him a total of $16 million this season: $8.5 million in bonuses atop his $7.5 million base salary.
He got paid $1 million apiece for his last four starts, along with $4.5 million for being on the active roster at least 90 days.
Considering the way he has pitched this season, 8-2 with a 3.13 ERA, he has been as invaluable as ever to the Dodgers.
– The Seattle Mariners are going to have to play a man short when rosters expand by two players on Sept. 1 with outfielder Victor Robles receiving a 10-game suspension that he’s appealing after throwing his bat towards opposing pitcher Joey Estes of the Las Vegas Aviators.
– Has there been a more remarkable turnaround than Atlanta center fielder Michael Harris’s resurgence since the All-Star break? He went from having the worst OPS (.551) among all major league qualifiers before the All-Star break to now having the third-highest (1.080) since the All-Star break. He hit .210 before the break and now is hitting .370 the second half.
“Better late than never,” he says.
– The Colorado Rockies probably won’t break the White Sox’s record for futility this year, but they can set another dubious record.
Their starting rotation is yielding a 6.59 ERA, currently eclipsing the franchise record of 6.19 ERA, set in 1999 before they brought the humidor to Coors Field.
– Cool moment seeing Rockies third baseman Kyle Karros homering against his dad’s former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, with Eric Karros in attendance.
– Rafael Devers is striking out at an alarming pace since being traded to the Giants from the Boston Red Sox, with his 31% strikeout rate the third-highest in the NL.
– The free-falling Texas Rangers have scored three or fewer runs in 65 games this season, and on pace to score three or fewer in a whopping 83 games.
– Max Scherzer is dominating like he’s in his 30s again, yielding just five earned runs in 25 innings while the opposition is hitting just .215.
– The best trade of the year was the Brewers acquiring starter Quinn Priester (11-2) from the Boston Red Sox on April 7, and have now won 15 consecutive games in which Priester has pitched.
– The Dodgers no longer can count on rookie Roki Sasaki helping them down the stretch. His velocity is nowhere near the 102 mph he threw in Japan. He has thrown 59 fastballs through his two rehab starts, and has generated only one swing-and-miss.
– The Dodgers are toying with the idea of using Shohei Ohtani in relief during the postseason, but if they do, he would vacate his spot in the lineup when his turn came up to hit. If he’s a starter, he’s permitted to stay in the game as a DH after he’s done pitching.
– The Athletics have already won 33 road games, their most in four years. Unfortunately, they can’t win at home, going 26-37 at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, third-worst in MLB.
– You think the folks in San Diego love their Padres?
They are projected to set the franchise attendance record for the third consecutive year at nearly 3.4 million. Their average attendance of 42,521 ranks second in the major leagues behind only the Dodgers. The Padres project they will draw more than 300,000 fans for their seven-game homestand that concludes Sunday, setting another franchise record.
– Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the Cardinals are averaging 28,828 fans a game, the lowest for a full season since 1984.
– The Padres are trying to buck history. They have hit only 110 home runs this year, the second-fewest in baseball. No team has won a World Series after ranking in the bottom five in home runs since the 2012 Giants, who finished last. None of the past five World Series winners ranked lower than fourth in home runs.
– The Seattle Mariners’ brutal 2-7 road trip exemplified their mysterious struggles on the road this season by their vaunted starting rotation. They yielded a 6.49 ERA, lasting fewer than four innings a start on the trip. They have baseball’s fifth-worst road ERA (4.93) and second worst opponents’ batting average (.281) and slugging percentage (.472) on the road. Yet, once they’re home, they have the third-best ERA (3.22), second-best opponents’ average (.206) and third-best opponents’ slugging percentage (.348).
Certainly, with these drastic home-road splits, they understand the importance of winning the AL West instead of taking their chances of a three-game wild card series with potentially every game on the road.
– Just how bad was the Nolan Arenado trade four years ago by the Colorado Rockies with the St. Louis Cardinals?
Well, after the Rockies just released starter Austin Gomber (0-7, 7.49 ERA), they now have exactly no one left from the trade. The Rockies received five players in the deal: infielders Mateo Gil and Elehuris Montero along with pitchers Tony Locey and Jake Sommers. None remain in the Rockies’ organization.
– So just why did the Diamondbacks strip Shaun Larkin from their third-base coaching duties with just 35 games remaining in the season?
If they didn’t, they might have had a mutiny on their hands with their players growing exasperated after a series of wrong decisions.
“I saw the reactions of certain guys,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I’m not an idiot; I pay attention. … That was a little bit of my calculus, for sure.”
Larkin was replaced by Tim Bogar, who was last a big-league third-base coach in 2011.
– There’s no one quite like Detroit Tigers veteran starter Charlie Morton, who is enjoying a renaissance since being traded to the Tigers, but is still brokenhearted by his struggles with Baltimore.
‘If it didn’t affect me, I wouldn’t be playing,’ Morton told reporters. “Part of what drives me back to the game is the failure. It’s not the incessant failure. But for me, earlier in the year with the Orioles, that was difficult. That was really, really difficult. I’m failing on the field with a group of guys who don’t really know me, a new organization, high expectations.
‘Here I am with the limited time I have left on this earth and I’m spending it failing at baseball while I’m not present at home with my wife and kids. That was really tough.’’
– There’s no one the Dodgers hate facing more than Padres starter Yu Darvish these days. In Darvish’s 19 starts against the Dodgers since joining the Padres in 2021, he has a 2.63 ERA and 0.88 WHIP, including a 2.89 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in three postseason starts. He has given up no more than one run in eight of those starts.
Not bad for a guy who became the Padres’ first starter 39 years or older to win a game since Hall of Famer Greg Maddux in 2008.
– What a beautiful evening in Atlanta where they celebrated the 30-year anniversary of their 1995 World Series championship Friday highlighted by Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox making a rare appearance. Cox, surrounded by family members, stood up from his wheelchair in a suite and received a thunderous ovation. It was only Cox’s third visit to the stadium since suffering a severe stroke at the beginning of the 2019 season that left his right side paralyzed with difficulty speaking.
“He’s the toughest son of a gun I’ve ever seen,’’ Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz said. “The fact he is here just blows my mind.’’
Follow Nightengale on X:@Bnightengale