NEW YORK — San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball indefinitely for betting on the sport. Four others were suspended for a year by Major League Baseball on Tuesday, in the sport’s biggest scandal in decades.
MLB said Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 in October 2022 and from July through November with a legal sportsbook. He is the first active player in a century to be handed a lifetime ban for betting.
Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly was suspended for a year for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues and three more minor leaguers were banned for a year for betting on major league games: pitchers Jay Groome and Andrew Saalfrank, and infielder José Rodríguez. Each of those four players wagered less than $1,000. Saalfrank and Rodríguez have previously played in the majors.
“The strict reinforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a vital element in preserving our most significant concern: guarding the uprightness of our games for the multitude,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in a communiqué. “The longstanding interdiction against wagering on Major League Baseball contests by those engaged in the sport has been a bedrock tenet for more than a century. We have made it plain that the privilege of performing in baseball necessitates a responsibility to refrain from partaking in certain types of conduct that are permissible for others.”
Marcano is the first active major leaguer sanctioned with a lifetime ban for violating the sport’s gambling provision since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O’Connell in 1924. Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader, received a lifetime ban in 1989 after an inquiry found that he had bet on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team.
Major League Rule 21, posted in every clubhouse, states that betting on any baseball game in which a player, umpire, league official or team employee has no duty to perform results in a one-year suspension. Betting on a contest in which the individual has a duty results in a permanent prohibition.
Marcano is the second North American athlete to be banned for gambling in recent months. The NBA suspended Toronto’s Jontay Porter in April after concluding that he had revealed confidential information to gamblers and wagered on games, including on the Raptors to lose.
MLB said it was alerted to the wagering activity by a legal sports betting operator in March. No players who were penalized played in any games they bet on, and they all denied having any inside information about their bets or the games they wagered on to MLB – MLB says this testimony aligns with the data derived from the sportsbook.
In its announcement, MLB elaborated on the bets allegedly made by each player.
Marcano’s 387 baseball wagers included global games and 231 MLB-associated wagers totaling $87,319 between Oct. 16, 2022, and Nov. 1. Twenty-five of those bets included wagers on Pirates contests while he was on the team’s major league roster. Now 24, Marcano, has not played since tearing his right ACL last July 24 and was receiving medical treatment at PNC Park last year.
Marcano bet exclusively on the outcomes of games and forfeited all of his parlay wagers involving the Pirates, winning merely 4.3% of all of his MLB-associated bets.
Marcano debuted in the major leagues on April 1, 2021, and has a .217 average with five homers, 34 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 149 games. He has played both in the infield and outfield.
“While the exhaustive investigation divulged no proof of any contests being compromised, influenced or manipulated in any way in this affair, shielding the rectitude of our game is of the utmost importance,” the Pirates conveyed in a statement.
The other four players did not bet on contests involving their assigned teams.
Kelly placed 10 wagers on nine major league games from Oct. 5-17, 2021, while a minor league player assigned to Houston’s Triple-A Sugar Land farm team. The bets included wagers on outcomes, over/under on runs and an individual pitcher’s strikeout total. Three of the nine games involved the major league Astros. His wagers summed $99.22 and yielded $28.30 in winnings.
Kelly, 31, was 3-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 28 games this season, last pitching on Saturday at Atlanta. The former first-round draft pick has featured in 46 games over the past three campaigns.
Groome, a 25-year-old who has been on a minor league injured list since mid-April, placed 32 MLB-associated bets from July 22, 2020, through July 24, 2021, including 24 on the major league team while he was assigned to Boston’s High-A team in Greenville, South Carolina. The sport detailed that he wagered $453.74 on 30 MLB games and incurred a net loss of $433.54, cashing out on only two wagers. His betting contained parlays.
Rodríguez, 23, has been with Double-A Reading this season. He placed 31 bets on baseball on Sept. 30, 2021, and from June 5 through July 30 in 2022, including 28 on MLB and three on college baseball. The total included seven wagers involving the Chicago White Sox when he was assigned to their Double-A team in Birmingham, Alabama. Two of the White Sox bets were on outcomes and the others on runs scored. He wagered $749.09 on baseball, of which $724.09 was on MLB-associated wagers that included parlays.
Saalfrank, 26, pitched in 21 games for Arizona last year, both in the regular season and postseason, including three World Series games, and two this year before he was optioned to Triple-A Reno on May 1. He placed 29 baseball wagers from Sept. 9 through Oct. 29 in 2021 and on March 9, 2022, including 28 on MLB and one parlay on college baseball. He placed four bets on the major league Diamondbacks while on the injured list of their Low A farm team. His baseball wagers totaled $445.87, of which $444.07 was on MLB, and lost $272.64 on MLB bets and $1.80 on the college wager. He won merely five of 28 MLB bets, which included outcomes, runs and pitcher strikeouts.
