Naylor tells jury Clase and Ortiz pitches looked normal
The former Guardians catcher described the suspected rigged sliders as standard stuff, while a government witness detailed how he bet on slower pitches using tips from a co-defendant.
By Malik Salazar ·
Bo Naylor testified on Thursday that the pitches Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz allegedly rigged to help bettors appeared indistinguishable from normal gameplay. Naylor, a defense witness in the federal gambling trial, reviewed video replays of the specific balls in question and stated that nothing looked unusual to him behind the plate.
Naylor described the pitches as common sliders thrown outside the strike zone. He noted that scouting reports for the hitters Ortiz faced indicated that low and away sliders were a specific weapon. During cross-examination by Paul Flannery, one of Ortiz's attorneys, Naylor simply identified the pitch as a "slider low and away."
Naylor played for Cleveland for five seasons before moving to Milwaukee in August. He caught 14 of Ortiz's 16 starts in 2025, including the June 27 game against St. Louis where Ortiz is accused of rigging the first pitch of the bottom third inning to Pedro Pages. Naylor also caught seven of the 18 pitches Clase is accused of manipulating between May 2023 and May 2025. He told the court that none of those pitches stood out as remarkable or out of the ordinary.
The catcher said he did not know sportsbooks offered bets on individual pitch results or speed until the case went public. While he agreed that sharing team information with outsiders would be a betrayal, he did not suspect any breaches of trust by the pitchers.
Government witness Edward Canario testified in the afternoon. Canario said he used information from co-defendant Luis Arismendy Paca Méndez to place bets on Clase pitches in 2023. Canario stated he paid Paca Méndez half the profits from winning bets but kept all the losses. He said Paca Méndez lived with Clase in Cleveland and instructed him not to tell anyone about the pitch information.
Canario placed wagers upwards of $600 on pitches to be slower than 94.5 mph or to result in a ball or hit batsman. He said he bet larger amounts because he had inside information on these pitches. Under cross-examination, Canario said Paca Méndez called them "for-sure bets" rather than explicitly citing inside information. Canario signed a cooperation agreement with the government to receive leniency.
Paca Méndez is not present for the current trial after being extradited from the Dominican Republic on Oct. 19. Clase and Ortiz were indicted in November 2025. They face charges of conspiracy to commit wire and honest services fraud, sports bribery, and money laundering. Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto expects the trial to continue until Dec. 3.
