Current MLB Lawsuits: Pitch-Rigging, Antitrust, and Minor League Wages

Major League Baseball is juggling several active legal fights in 2026: a federal criminal case accusing two Cleveland Guardians pitchers of rigging pitches for gamblers, a former player’s negligence suit over a career-ending stadium injury, a renewed but unsuccessful challenge to baseball’s antitrust exemption, and privacy claims from MLB.tv subscribers over data sharing with Facebook. The current MLB lawsuits sit at very different stages, and the stakes range from prison time to a century-old legal doctrine.

Federal Pitch-Rigging Case Against Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz

The most serious matter is a criminal prosecution. Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted in the Eastern District of New York on November 9, 2025, and charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy.¹

According to prosecutors, Clase began feeding advance pitch information to two gamblers in the Dominican Republic in May 2023, then threw specific pitches to make prop bets pay off. Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme in June 2025. For a June 15, 2025 game, bettors allegedly paid each pitcher $5,000; for a June 27 game, $7,000 each. The government says Clase’s actions generated at least $400,000 in fraudulent winnings and Ortiz’s at least $60,000.²

Both players pleaded not guilty. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto initially set jury selection for May 4, 2026,³ but as of mid-2026 the trial has been pushed to November 2, 2026, and prosecutors have not extended plea offers.⁴ Ortiz was released on a $500,000 bond restricting him to Boston, New York, and Cleveland; Clase was released on a $600,000 bond with GPS monitoring and restrictions to New York and Ohio.² Ortiz’s attorney, Chris Georgalis, says his client is innocent and that any payments were for lawful activities.⁵

If convicted on all counts, each player faces a statutory maximum of 65 years in prison, though sentences for first-time white-collar defendants rarely approach that ceiling.²

On the league side, MLB placed both pitchers on paid non-disciplinary leave in July 2025 after its own investigation flagged unusual betting activity. In March 2026, the league and the MLB Players Association agreed to shift them to unpaid non-disciplinary leave as of March 20, 2026. MLB has stressed that the move is not a suspension, not a placement on the permanently ineligible list, and “not an admission of any wrongdoing.” The league typically holds formal discipline until criminal proceedings conclude.⁶⁷

Darin Ruf’s Negligence Suit Against the Cincinnati Reds

On May 22, 2025, former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Darin Ruf sued the Cincinnati Reds in Ohio state court, alleging the team’s negligence ended his career. The complaint says Ruf collided with an unpadded, sharp metal tarp roller at Great American Ball Park on June 2, 2023, while chasing a foul pop-up, and that the tarp roller lacked cushioning or a cap, creating what the complaint calls an “obvious and avoidable risk.” Ruf says the collision caused “permanent and substantial deformities to his knee.”⁸⁹

Ruf is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. No dollar figure has been disclosed publicly, but he earned $3 million in 2023.¹⁰

The Reds tried to move the case to federal court, arguing Ruf’s claims were preempted by the MLB-MLBPA collective bargaining agreement. A judge rejected that argument in January 2026, sent the case back to state court, and awarded Ruf $7,350 in attorney’s fees on the remand motion. As of June 2026, Ruf has filed a motion for leave to amend his complaint, and the case remains active in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas.¹¹

Antitrust Exemption Survives Another Challenge

Baseball’s antitrust exemption, rooted in the Supreme Court’s 1922 ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, remains intact. On March 2, 2026, the Court denied certiorari in Cangrejeros de Santurce v. Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico, a case brought by a former Puerto Rican club owner who alleged the league and other owners conspired to exclude him. The district court and the First Circuit had both held that the exemption extends beyond MLB itself to cover other professional baseball leagues, and dismissed the suit.¹²

The petitioners had called the exemption “indefensibly wrong,” pointed to the Court’s 2021 ruling in NCAA v. Alston, and cited a lower-court split on how far the exemption reaches.¹³ The Court denied review without explanation, leaving the exemption in place absent congressional action.¹²

This was the second recent near-miss. In 2023, MLB settled three suits from former minor league affiliates that lost their major league partnerships on confidential terms on November 2, 2023, mooting a pending cert petition in Tri-City ValleyCats v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball.¹⁴ The House Judiciary Committee has also opened a legislative front: in August 2025 it requested a briefing from Commissioner Rob Manfred on MLB’s role in the sports broadcasting market and whether federal antitrust laws need updating for digital streaming.¹⁵

MLB.tv Video Privacy Claims

MLB Advanced Media has faced a wave of claims alleging that MLB.tv violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act by sharing subscribers’ viewing data with Meta through Facebook tracking pixels embedded on MLB.com. The claims say the pixels sent users’ Facebook IDs alongside the videos they watched, enabling targeted advertising without the written consent the VPPA requires.¹⁶

MLB has prevailed on both tracks so far. In January 2026, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York dismissed three proposed class actions, finding that subscribers had not supported their allegation that their personal data was knowingly and illegally shared.¹⁷

Because MLB’s terms of use historically required arbitration, more than 5,600 customers separately filed mass-arbitration claims. In March 2026, Judge Analisa Torres denied the claimants’ petition to compel arbitration, finding they had not shown that the arbitration clause in MLB’s 2020 terms survived a 2024 update that removed it. The court did order limited discovery on whether the parties had a binding agreement to arbitrate.¹⁸

Minor League Wages: Senne Settlement and the Fair Ball Act

The most significant recent MLB-related settlement is closed, but its aftermath is still shaping labor policy. In Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, filed in 2014 in the Northern District of California, minor leaguers alleged MLB teams required long hours without minimum wage or overtime pay, with most players earning less than $10,000 a year.¹⁹ MLB agreed to a $185 million settlement covering roughly 23,000 to 24,000 players, with average payouts of about $5,000 to $5,500. Judge Joseph C. Spero granted final approval on March 29, 2023.²⁰ MLB transferred the full amount to the settlement administrator by July 2023.²¹

Minor leaguers unionized with the MLBPA in September 2022, and a March 2023 collective bargaining agreement raised minimum salaries from $4,800 to $19,800 at the lowest level and from $17,500 to $35,800 at Triple-A. Senator Dick Durbin introduced the Fair Ball Act in late 2024 to roll back the 2018 Save America’s Pastime Act, which had exempted minor leaguers from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime rules. The bill would take effect after the current minor league CBA expires following the 2027 season, and had not advanced to a committee hearing as of mid-2026.²²

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Two Current Major League Baseball Players Charged With Sports Betting and Money Laundering
2
CBS Sports. MLB Betting Scandal: Emmanuel Clase, Luis L. Ortiz Pitch-Rigging DOJ Indictment
3
ABC News. Cleveland Guardians Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Stand Trial
4
ESPN. Guardians’ Clase, Ortiz Moved to Unpaid Non-Disciplinary Leave
5
NPR. Baseball Cleveland Guardians Pitchers Bribes Charged Gambling
6
MLB Trade Rumors. Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Shifted to Unpaid Non-Disciplinary Leave
7
Fox Sports. Guardians RHPs Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Placed on Unpaid Leave Amid MLB Probe
8
ESPN. Ex-Brewer Ruf Sues Reds Over Career-Ending Injury at Cincy Park
9
CNN. Former MLB Player Sues Reds Over Career-Ending Injury
10
Forbes. Lawsuit by Former Milwaukee Brewer Ruf Is Latest in Line of Field Safety Cases
11
Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete. Major League Baseball Continues Its Losing Streak on Labor Preemption Claims
12
Sportico. Baseball Antitrust Exemption Supreme Court MLB
13
Supreme Court of the United States. Cangrejeros de Santurce Baseball Club v. Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico, Reply of Petitioners
14
UC Law SF Comment. MLB Antitrust Exemption Settlement
15
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. Letter to Commissioner Manfred Regarding Sports Broadcasting
16
U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. Bryan Henry v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Case No. 1:24-cv-01446
17
Law360. MLB.tv Gets Fans’ Facebook Data-Sharing Suits Thrown Out
18
Bloomberg Law. MLB Beats Mass Arbitration Effort by Video Privacy Claimants
19
Korein Tillery. Historic $185 Million Settlement in Minor League Baseball Wage and Hour Case Given Final Approval
20
Law360. Senne et al v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
21
ESPN. MLB Pays $185M to Settle Minor Leaguers’ Minimum Wage Lawsuit
22
ESPN. Fair Ball Act Aims to Further Protect Minor Leaguers