MLB bans Tucupita Marcano for sports betting violations; 4 other disciplined players

Infielder Tucupita Marcano, part of the San Diego Padres organization, became the first player to be declared permanently ineligible to bet on baseball since Pete Rose in 1989, after a league investigation revealed that Marcano bet more than $87,000 in MLB games, including 25 from Pittsburgh. Pirates games in which he was injured but on the major league roster.

The other four players – Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly, Philadelphia Phillies minor league pitcher José Rodríguez, San Diego Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Andrew Saalfrank – were declared ineligible for a year after investigation revealed they all placed bets on MLB. games too.

“Strict enforcement of Major League Baseball rules and policies governing the conduct of gambling is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for fans. The long-standing ban on betting on Major League Baseball games by those who play the sport has been a fundamental principle for more than a century,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

“We have made clear that the privilege of playing baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for others. Since the Supreme Court ruling opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have been working with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity standpoint 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 aimed at ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”

MLB, which was quick to allow its teams and national broadcasts to run betting odds and advertisements from online betting companies during games once the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports betting, insisted in a press release on Tuesday that none of the players involved influenced the results of the games they bet on and that “the betting data does not suggest that any results of the baseball games on which they placed bets were compromised, influenced or manipulated in any way.”

The release explained that in March of this year, a legal sports betting operation flagged past bets by minor and major league players to MLB, which then obtained data on their bets. The league has long been clear about its stance on sports betting: players can place bets on other sports as long as they do so through legal betting operations, but they cannot, under any circumstances, bet on baseball.

The league’s rule book states: “Any player, umpire, official or employee of the club or league, who bets any amount on any baseball game in respect of which the bettor has no obligation to perform, will be declared ineligible for one year . ” Meanwhile, “any player, umpire, official or employee of a club or league, who bets any amount on any baseball game with respect to which the bettor has a duty to perform, will be declared permanently ineligible.”

Marcano last played in the majors in July 2023, when an ACL injury ended his season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In total, MLB found that he bet approximately $150,000 on baseball, beginning in October 2022 and continuing through the summer of 2023. It was during that summer, when he was on the injured list but still receiving treatment at PNC Park, that he made 25 bets on the Pirates. He did not appear in any of these games.

The other four players did not bet on teams they were rostered on at the time, although some did bet on games played by their affiliated major league organization while playing in the minors. When Kelly was a minor leaguer in the Houston Astros system in 2021, he made over/under bets on how many runs the major league team would score and how many strikeouts individual pitchers would have, according to MLB. Kelly, who has since played in 48 major league games with the Phillies and A’s, including 38 this year, was not involved in any of the games he bet on.

The same happened to Saalfrank, a young left-hander who pitched in three World Series games for the Diamondbacks as a rookie in 2023. MLB’s investigation found that Saalfrank bet on MLB games 28 times while in the lower levels of the MLB’s minor league system. Arizona. Four of those games were Diamondbacks games, according to MLB, which said Saalfrank only won five of those bets.

Rodríguez, who appeared in one major league game with the Chicago White Sox before being acquired by the Phillies before this season, made seven bets on the White Sox while a member of their Class AA Birmingham team in 2022. In total, he bet approx. $750 on 28 baseball bets.

Padres left-hander Groome has yet to make his major league debut, but it was discovered that he bet on the outcomes of Boston Red Sox games while a member of their high Class A affiliate in 2020 and 2021. According to the MLB investigation , Groome bet $453.74 on 30 bets related to MLB games and lost $433.54.

The suspensions come as MLB continues to investigate former Angels infielder David Fletcher after his name surfaced in connection with Mathew Bowyer, the bookie with whom Ippei Mizuhara, the Los Angeles Dodgers star’s former interpreter, Shohei Ohtani allegedly racked up millions in debt that he tried to pay off. pay with Ohtani’s money. Coincidentally, Mizuhara appeared in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges that could carry a maximum sentence of more than 30 years in prison. MLB later issued a statement clearing its global superstar, Ohtani, of any negligence in the scandal.

“Based on the thoroughness of the federal investigation that has been made public, the information collected by MLB and the criminal case being resolved without contest, MLB considers Shohei Ohtani a victim of fraud and this matter has been closed,” the league said in a statement. declaration.

MLB typically does not announce investigations when they are opened, so it is unclear whether other gambling investigations are also ongoing.

The fact that Marcano’s name now sits alongside Rose’s on the list of modern players banned for betting on baseball serves as a reminder of the gravity of this offense in the eyes of MLB and the complicated place Rose occupies in baseball history because of it. .

Rose had already become MLB’s all-time leader when he was accused of betting on 52 of his team’s games while managing the 1987 Reds.

Rose, who would have had control over gambling decisions that could have helped him win bets if he had chosen to make them, denied these allegations. But he ultimately accepted a lifetime ban in exchange for then-commissioner Bart Giamatti not issuing any formal findings on the extent of his gambling activities.

Because he was declared permanently ineligible, Rose was not inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining some of the tainted stars of the steroid era as controversial exclusions. This exclusion has become a more frequent topic of discussion in recent years, especially as MLB has embraced new sports betting partners.

Now, 35 years later, MLB has issued another lifetime ban — one that, since Marcano has 88 hits to his name instead of 4,256, probably won’t seem all that historically significant. But it’s important to note that the barrage of punishments handed down on Tuesday was effectively unprecedented. The 1919 Black Sox were the last group of players punished, en masse, for gambling-related violations. These players, of course, were accused of betting on and throwing the World Series. For now, MLB says, there is no evidence of such manipulation in its daily games.