Emmanuel Clase could’ve been one of the best closers in the history of baseball.
Instead, barring a shocking late-innings twist, Clase is going to be remembered as a pitcher whose career with the Cleveland Guardians went up in flames in a gambling investigation.
Clase is currently on unpaid leave from the Guardians, but by technicality, he’s still under contract with Cleveland.
That’s going to change quite soon.
Emmanuel Clase Contract Future
Clase’s club control with the Guardians was slated to end after the 2026 season.
For 2027, he had a team option built in to his deal. If the Guardians exercised it, it would pay Clase $10 million for next season. But if they wanted to decline it, it’d cost them a $2 million buyout.
If none of this had happened, Clase would’ve been a shoo-in at $10 million, a bargain at that price for his ability.
Of course, things have changed since that option was a part of Clase’s contract. He’s not going to be having his option exercised.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan, in case there was any suspense about this at all, put Clase in the “unlikely to be picked up” contract option portion of a new article that he published on Thursday.
Of course, of all the names on Passan’s list, Clase’s is the one that is probably the closest to a 0% chance of being exercised.
Emmanuel Clase’s Buyout
The $2 million buyout is an interesting component. In some ways, the Guardians do still have to decide that they want to decline Clase’s team option year, which would in turn activate the buyout.
With no off-field troubles, such a situation would mean that Clase would get $2 million from the Guardians and become a free agent.
The legal trouble makes the regular MLB contract flow quite a bit different here.
This is what MLB Trade Rumors wrote earlier this season:
“Clase is on unpaid non-administrative leave pending the investigation into an alleged game-fixing scheme. He’s not making his $6MM salary this year, nor does it seem likely he’ll collect the $2MM option buyout.”
There’s always a chance that the investigation eventually leads to a path in which Clase is allowed to earn that buyout money, but as things stand, it sounds unlikely.
And either way, because of his contract length, Clase will no longer be any part of the Guardians’ organization once the contract officially has its team option declined.
Once upon a time, it seemed Clase would be trotting out of the Cleveland bullpen for the next decade.
Now, he almost certainly never will again.
Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase $2 Million Ending Is Near