Cleveland Guardians relief Pitcher Emmanuel Case has been placed on leave until August 31 while Major League Baseball officials investigate potential sports betting issues. It’s a case that focuses on the hot button issue of microbetting and could put more pressure on sports betting operators to ban the activity entirely.
Case is no back-bencher and was considered a prime asset in the Guardians’ trade portfolio. Details of the investigation are slim, but published reports indicate that it’s related both to microbetting and a separate investigation involving Guardians’ starting pitcher, Louis Ortiz.
Team officials didn’t tip their hand much at all in their official statement on the matter, which was posted on MLB.com, saying, “The Guardians have been notified by Major League Baseball that as part of their sports betting investigation Emmanuel Clase has been placed on non-disciplinary paid leave per an agreement with the Players Association. We have been informed that no additional players or club personnel are expected to be impacted.”
The microbetting angle is particularly interesting, given the efforts that a crime syndicate would have to put in order to make a scheme of this type work. After all, the key point regarding microbetting is that the stakes are extremely low. That said, the Ortiz investigation is focused on microbetting and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has criticized the practice in the past saying, “Certain types of bets strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable – things where it’s one single act and doesn’t affect the [game] outcome necessarily.”
Details of the investigation are still emerging but one thing is for certain, the MLB does not suspend starters and star players lightly. It appears that they’ve found something that’s peaked their interest and are taking the situation very seriously.