Major League Baseball banned San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for life for betting on baseball, the league announced Tuesday.
Four other players — Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly and minor leaguers Jay Groome (Padres), Jose Rodriguez (Phillies), and Andrew Saalfrank (Diamondbacks) — were suspended for one year for placing unrelated bets with a legal sportsbook.
“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,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “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.”
An investigation found that Marcano placed 387 bets on baseball, including 231 MLB-related wagers totaling over $150,000 between Oct. 16, 2022, and Nov. 1, 2023. Twenty-five of those were made on the Pittsburgh Pirates while the infielder was on their roster. However, he did not play in any of those games while he recovered from a knee injury.
Of the 231 bets he placed, Marcano won just 4.3% of them.
Marcano violated MLB Rule 21, which states that betting on any baseball game in which a player “has a duty to perform,” results in a lifetime ban.
The 24-year-old is the first active MLB player to be banned for life since Jimmy O’Connell of the New York Giants in 1924 after he offered Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 to throw the final three games of the rr season to help the Giants win the National League pennant.
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