Former MLB Player Facing 15 Years In Prison Over Involvement In Illegal Gambling Ring

Former MLB player Yasiel Puig Valdés, 35, was found guilty in February 2026 of lying to federal law enforcement agents about placing illegal gambling bets. Puig, who played in the MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making false statements.

Puig is just the latest MLB star to make headlines after being caught up in legal woes related to gambling. According to The Blast, Cleveland Guardians players Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were arrested in November 2025 after law enforcement officials alleged the two pitchers provided information to gamblers to help them place winning bets.

According to an official press release from the Department of Justice, Puig began placing bets on different sporting events through a sub-agent of an illegal gambling business run by a man in Newport Coast. Puig reportedly called and texted messages with wagers to the sub-agent, who submitted the bets on Puig's behalf. The DOJ press release stated that Puig owed the illegal gambling business at least $282,000 in losses by June 2019.

In June 2019, Puig was instructed to make a check or wire transfer of $200,000 payable to a client of the illegal gambling business, to whom the company reportedly owed gambling winnings.

Puig then withdrew the funds from a Bank of America branch, sent them, and almost immediately began placing more bets through the illegal business from July 4, 2019, to September 29, 2019.

The DOJ reported that Puig placed 899 bets on tennis, football, and basketball games during this time, and claimed many of them were placed at MLB ballparks just before and after games he played in.

Puig reportedly "ran up a gambling debt with [this] illegal bookmaking operation of nearly $1 million, a debt he never paid."

In January 2022, Puig was interviewed by federal investigators in front of his lawyers. During the interview, Puig reportedly lied "several times," despite being informed that lying to federal agents is a crime.

The DOJ press release stated that Puig said he never discussed gambling with the sub-agent from the illegal business and that he only knew of him through the baseball world.

When Puig was presented with the $200,000 check he sent in June 2019, he claimed that he had placed an online bet with an "unknown person on an unknown website that resulted in a loss of $200,000."

Puig, however, was caught sending an audio message on WhatsApp, a secure cross-platform messaging site, in which he admitted to being dishonest with federal agents and to "obstructing their grand jury investigation."

Things only got messier for Puig—a Cuban national—when he lied during his naturalization process on government forms and under oath by stating he "never engaged in illegal gambling or received income from illegal gambling."

Puig is expected to be sentenced on May 26, 2026. He faces 15 years in federal prison on the obstruction charge and up to five years in prison for making a false statement.

Puig isn't the only MLB affiliate who may find himself locked behind bars in 2026 and beyond for gambling-related charges.

As mentioned above, Guardians players Clase and Ortiz were indicted on charges related to alleged gambling misconduct in the summer of 2025.

The initial press release stated that the two men were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy, after federal agents alleged the two athletes distributed game information to bettors, who used it to place winning wagers.

The federal indictment alleged that Clase and Ortiz worked with "co-conspirators," providing them with information about pitches they planned to throw, allowing the bettors to place "hundreds of fraudulent bets on those pitches."

"The bettors used the advanced, inside information that Clase provided about his future pitches to wager thousands of dollars at online sportsbooks," the indictment stated.

If convicted, Clase and Ortiz face a maximum of 65 years in prison—20 on the wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, and money laundering count, and five years on the conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery.