Major League Baseball has handed San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano a lifetime ban for betting on baseball. The league suspended four other players for a year after discovering they had placed unrelated bets at a legal sportsbook.
Marcano appears to be the first active Major Leaguer banned under the sport’s gambling provisions since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O’Connell in 1924. MLB career hits leader Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation revealed that he gambled on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team.
Another major league player, Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly, was banned from playing for a year on Tuesday for betting on baseball while playing in the minor leagues. In addition, minor leaguers Jay Groome of San Diego, José Rodríguez of Philadelphia and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona were banned for one year for betting on Major League games.
The league said it was tipped off about the gambling activities by a legal sports betting operator. None of the punished players played in games they were betting on, and all players denied to MLB that they had inside information relevant to their bets or the games they were betting on — testimony that MLB says matches data received from the sportsbook.
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies regarding gambling conduct is a critical part of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for fans,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement. “The longstanding ban on gambling on Major League Baseball games by athletes has been a fundamental principle for more than a century. We have made it clear that the privilege of playing baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from certain types of behavior that are legal for other people.”
Marcano was found to have placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 MLB-related bets, totaling more than $150,000 between October 16, 2022 and November 1, 2023. The league says 25 of those bets included bets on Pittsburgh Pirates games while he was on the team’s Major League roster. However, he did not appear in any of those matches after suffering a season-ending knee injury. Marcano gambled almost exclusively on game outcomes and lost all of his parlay bets involving the Pirates, winning just 4.3% of all his MLB-related bets.
Major League Rule 21, posted in every clubhouse, governs betting on any baseball game in which a player, umpire, league official or team employee is not required to post results after a one-year suspension. Betting on a game where the person has a duty to perform results in a lifetime ban.