Let me start this column with just the facts: the 2025 Guardians won the AL Central title, coming from 15.5 games behind at one point to do so. That is the biggest comeback in MLB history. More specifically, they came back from 15.5 behind the Tigers, but the Tigers got the last laugh by beating the Guards as a wildcard team in the ensuing playoffs. The last laugh, but not the best laugh. Especially considering Detroit was bounced in the next round.
All successful teams overcome adversity, but the adversity the Guards overcame in 2025 is unique, in that one of the aspects was losing two pitchers in July, including one of the best pitchers in the game, to a gambling investigation.
The findings of that investigation has now been made public, and unlike other gambling suspensions and disciplinary actions, this one has resulted in the criminal indictment of the two pitchers involved, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz.
In case you are not aware, these days you can bet on EVVVVVERYTHING, including dumb stuff like, "Is the first pitch of the next inning going to be a ball or a strike?" and, "Is the first pitch of the inning going to be over or under 100 miles per hour?"
Apparently, those are the types of pitches Ortiz and Clase threw — balls and sub-100 mph pitches — on purpose to start innings to benefit their betting co-conspirators. Ortiz and Clase, allegedly were paid absolute chump change in relation to their salaries to do this.
Clase, in particular, is a ridiculous beast of a pitcher, sporting a ridiculous 0.61 ERA in the 2024 regular season over 74.1 innings. It seems a sure bet he's never going to pitch in the majors again, which is such a colossally stupid waste. Like, I can scarcely wrapped my brain around it.
So this is what the Guardians overcame while they were simultaneously historically overcoming a 15.5-game division lead. Breaking historic records is not new for Cleveland in recent times, who you might recall had an AL-record setting 22-game winning streak in 2017.
This year's comeback, paired with their Clase-less handicap in doing so, is probably why their manager, Stephen Vogt, was just named AL Manager of the Year. He was AL Manager of the Year last season, too, his first two as Cleveland manager (or a manager anywhere for that matter).
(Yes, I'm spending a portion of the column simply bragging on my team.)
The Clase indictment news just hit, and, as I've come to expect of all fanbases, some of them are overreacting just a touch.
First, some fans are now speculating that Clase threw the 2024 playoffs, where he got knocked around pretty good by the Tigers and Yankees.
I don't buy that. As I said in one Cleveland baseball fan forum, It's not just that the parts we know (throwing balls or sub-100 mph pitches to start innings) fall well short of that losing playoff games on purpose. It's that he was most dominant pitcher in baseball in 2024! If he wanted to graduate to outright throwing games for bigger bucks, he would have had ample opportunity to do that at various points in the regular season.
Indeed, keeping the chicanery limited to single pitches is probably a) how he morally justified it to himself that this was not such a terrible thing to do, and b) how the betting syndicates themselves were able to convince him to do this. "It's not a big deal! It's just one pitch."
The indictment alleges that Clase brought Ortiz into the scheme, but Ortiz was suspended three weeks earlier than Clase. How he must've felt sitting home while his referrer Clase pitched on.
And, I don't know, Clase and Ortiz are now facing long prison sentences that go with their felony charges, and am I wrong in thinking that would be a bit excessive? I'd be satisfied with them being barred for life from MLB.
Anyway, back to the fanbase. Some of them are taking this about as hard as one would when an immediate family member passes away. Forgive me for quoting myself again, but one can still be a big, big fan without being so very emotionally invested in this pastime that, like all sports, ought to be providing a respite from the emotionally draining and frequently devastating (about actually important things!) things that comes part and parcel with just living life and loving people.
It reminds me of when an athlete befalls a serious injury on TV. The announcers always intone, "it's times like this when you are reminded this is just a game."
That's correct, but crucially, it's also correct when nothing bad is happening! Remember that when nothing bad is happening, and you will be able to take it better when terrible things happen. And you should, because terrible things will happen. We can't control how players, teams, leagues, networks, and so on will anger or disappoint us, but we can control how we relate to those things. It's worth doing.
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