Breaking: MLB Bans Padres Infielder lifetime for Betting on Baseball, Suspends Four Others

The MLB declared that Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has received a lifetime ban due to the league’s gambling policy.

Additionally, the league declared that pitchers Andrew Saalfrank of the Diamondbacks, José Rodríguez of the Phillies, Jay Groome of the Padres, and Michael Kelly of the A’s would all serve one-year penalties. When Kelly was in the minor leagues, he wagered on MLB (not the A’s), while the other three players, who are also in the minors, wagered on major league games.

The potential expulsion of Marcano coincides with professional sports dealing with the fallout from legalized gambling as well as an uptick in events involving betting. Raptors forward Jontay Porter was given a lifetime NBA ban in April after he placed bets on games and provided gamblers with private information. His expulsion occurred a few weeks after it was made public that Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani, had taken more than $16 million from the two-way player in order to settle debts related to illicit gaming. It just so happens that Marcano’s exile occurs the day Mizuhara is scheduled to make a guilty plea.

Some gambling notes:

Oakland pitcher Michael Kelly bet a total of $99.22 on MLB games. That cost him an entire year. He was set to make $740,000 this season.

Tucupita Marcano bet more than $87,000 on MLB. Twenty-five included Pirates games. He lost every parlay involving PIT.

— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) June 4, 2024

MLB claimed that a legitimate sports operator had informed it of the betting activity. All of the affected players informed MLB that they had no inside knowledge about the games they were betting on, which was consistent with the information the league had from the bookmaker. None of the affected players took part in the games they wagered on.

Marcano was discovered to have wagered more than $150,000 on 387 baseball bets between October 2022 and November 2023, including 231 MLB-related wagers. When Marcano was a member of the Pirates, MLB discovered that 25 of those wagers were placed on the team. He tore his ACL while jogging the bases, therefore he was placed on the injured list and missed those games. But when he made the wagers, he was at PNC Park, the Pirates’ stadium. Marcano primarily wagered on sports, and he only won 4.3% of his MLB-type wagers. He lost all of his parlays involving the Pirates.

 

Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in a statement, “Strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans.” Over a century has passed since the fundamental rule that prohibits Major League Baseball players from placing bets on their team’s games was established. As a baseball player, you have the right to refrain from engaging in some behaviors that are acceptable for other people, and we have made that clear.

 

Players are permitted to wager lawfully on sports other than baseball under MLB’s gambling policy. Baseball players who wager on games that do not involve their club face a one-year punishment; those who wager on games that feature their team face a lifetime ban, a distinction made famous in 1989 by all-time hits leader Pete Rose while he managed the Reds. Since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O’Connell was suspended from gambling in 1924, Marcano looks to be the first active player to be banned for gambling.

Five years after making his major league debut, Marcano was first signed by the Padres in 2016 as a teenage player out of Venezuela. The team that signed him this past autumn claimed him off waivers after he was dealt to the Pirates in ’21. Over 149 games in his career, he only hit.217.