MLB Bans Tucupita Marcano For Life For Betting on Baseball

Just a few months after the NBA banned Jontay Porter indefinitely, Major League Baseball has taken similar action by issuing a lifetime suspension to San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for gambling on the sport.

On Tuesday, Marcano was among five players suspended for violating the MLB’s sports betting policy. The MLB Department of Investigations found that Marcano, along with Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly and minor-leaguers Jay Groome, Jose Rodriguez, and Andrew Saalfrank, were all involved in the violations.

Kelly, Groome, Rodriguez, and Saalfrank have been suspended for one year, while Marcano has been permanently banned.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred emphasized the importance of enforcing the league’s rules and policies on gambling conduct to maintain the integrity of the games for the fans.

Marcano’s sports betting violations

Marcano was discovered to have made 387 bets on the sport, with over 25 of them being on the team he was playing for at the time.

He made those bets while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in October 2022, and Marcano continued to do so from July 2023 to November 2023 using one of the top sports betting websites.

He placed over $87,000 in bets on MLB games, averaging around $390 per wager. Out of the approximately 200 wagers, 25 were made while Marcano was on the Pirates’ roster. Despite being on the injured list during this time, the league determined that he did not manipulate any of the games he bet on.

Marcano’s MLB betting record showed he had a success rate of only 4.3%, which involved placing moneyline or run-line bets on the Pirates, as well as participating in different parlays.

The other suspensions

Kelly, Groome, Rodriguez, and Saalfrank were not found to have placed bets on games in which they were involved or could have influenced directly.

Rodriguez placed the highest bet of nearly $750 on parlays, while Kelly only wagered less than $100 on five games. Groome and Saalfrank each bet approximately $450. All four individuals will be suspended for one year.

The top sports betting apps informed MLB about the occurrence of these wagers.

Recent MLB scandals

At the start of the season, Major League Baseball was rocked by a major betting scandal involving Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani. Mizuhara recently pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges during a hearing on Tuesday, facing a maximum sentence of 33 years.

Allegedly, MLB is looking into potential sports betting violations involving Atlanta Braves and former Los Angeles Angels infielder David Fletcher.