San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has received a lifetime ban for violating MLB betting policy, the league announced Tuesday.
Marcano wagered more than $150,000 on baseball, spanning October 2022 and July-November 2023.
Four other players received one-year suspensions for unrelated MLB betting violations.
Details on Marcano’s MLB betting
The 24-year-old Marcano wagered 25 times on his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. He placed those bets while on the injured list with Pittsburgh.
Marcano violated Rule 21, which states: “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
MLB: No evidence games Marcano bet were ‘compromised’
According to MLB, there is no evidence to suggest that the outcome of the games he wagered on were “compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way.”
The league’s news release also said nearly all Marcano’s Pirates bets were on “which club would win the game or whether there would be more or less than a certain number of runs scored in the game.”
The league said Marcano lost all of his bets involving the Pirates, and won 4.3% of his MLB-related wagers overall.
Infielder’s MLB betting by the numbers
- Overall, Marcano placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 MLB-related bets.
- He bet more than $150,000 on baseball, with $87,319 of that on MLB-related bets (average of $378 per bet.)
- Twenty-five of his 200 MLB bets were on the Pirates.
Four others get MLB betting bans
The four other players who received one-year bans include:
- Oakland A’s pitcher Michael Kelly (10 bets involving nine MLB games while in the minors in 2021.)
- San Diego Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome (30 MLB-related bets totaling $453.74 from 2020-21.)
- Philadelphia Phillies minor league infielder Jose Rodriguez (Bet $749.09 on baseball in September 2021 and June-July 2022.)
- Arizona Diamondbacks minor league pitcher Andrew Saalfrank (Bet $445.87 on baseball spanning three different occasions.)
Rule 21 also states: “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.”
Regulated system catches players
MLB said it learned in March from a legal sports betting operator that “it had identified past baseball betting activity from accounts connected to multiple Major and Minor League players.”
The league requires all personnel to participate in annual sports betting education programs.
Commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement on the bans:
“The 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,. The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people.
“Since the Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity perspective through the transparency that a regulated sports betting system can provide. MLB will continue to invest heavily in integrity monitoring, educational programming and awareness initiatives with the goal of ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”
