If any MLB players didn't believe that allegedly fixing games came with serious consequences, the images from the federal trial involving Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz this week should have changed their minds.
Clase and Ortiz were in New York on Thursday to face conspiracy charges for allegedly fixing individual pitches for prop bets during the 2025 season. Catcher Bo Naylor, who was a teammate of both pitchers with the Cleveland Guardians at the time, testified that he "didn't know" individual pitches could even be bet on.
"I didn't know that before," Naylor said, according to The Associated Press. "I didn't know that until (this) situation."
Prosecutors expressed disbelief that Naylor could be unaware of the nature of such bets, according to the AP report, and showed video of multiple pitches that have been called into question. Naylor was called upon to testify because, as a catcher, he would have been involved in game-planning and calling pitches for Clase and Ortiz, and might have known if they didn't throw the pitches he'd called.
When pitches missed the strike zone -- in some cases, spiked into the dirt or airmailed to the backstop -- Naylor testified that he simply chalked it up to even the best pitchers often missing their spots.
Naylor appeared in 207 games as a catcher over the 2024-2025 seasons with Cleveland. He was limited to 27 total games with the Guardians this season before he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he played only three games. He did not appear in a postseason game for the eventual World Series champions.