Tucupita Marcano joined the San Diego Padres as an international free agent in 2016 with dreams of playing in the major leagues. He finally reached the big leagues in 2021 with the Padres, recording his first MLB hit in a game against the San Francisco Giants that April. He also hit his first MLB home run that season in a game for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as he was traded to the NL Central team ahead of the trade deadline that year.
But any dreams of further MLB success are now over.
Marcano was one of five players suspended by the league on Tuesday for betting on baseball. Along with Marcano, Michael Kelly of the Oakland A’s was the other MLB player hit with disciplinary action by the league. Three Minor League players — Jay Groome, José Rodríguez, and Andrew Saalfrank — were also disciplined.
While the other four players were all given one-year suspensions, Marcano has been banned from the game for life.
Here is why.
According to the league, in March of 2024 MLB “… learned from a legal sports betting operator that it had identified past baseball betting activity from accounts connected to multiple Major and Minor League players.” This information touched off a lengthy investigation by the league that “ … included interviews, thorough review of the available information in each matter, and significant cooperation from MLB’s legal sportsbook partners.”
Over the course of their investigation, the league found that:
“None of these players played in any game on which they placed a bet. Further, all of the players denied that they had any inside information relevant to the bets or that any of the baseball games they bet on were compromised or manipulated, and the betting data does not suggest that any outcomes in the baseball games on which they placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way. None of the players are appealing their discipline.”
However Rule 21(d), which governs sports betting, reads as follows:
(1) Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.
(2) Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.
Regarding Marcano, the investigation found that he placed a staggering number of bets on MLB games, including during a period of time he was rehabbing for a knee injury with the Pirates.
According to the league’s investigation, “[b]etting data shows that from October 16, 2022 through October 23, 2022, and from July 12, 2023 through November 1, 2023, Marcano placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 MLB-related bets among other bets on international baseball games through a legal sportsbook. Marcano’s MLB bets were generally parlays, which would sometimes include multiple MLB-related legs, and they would sometimes include MLB-related legs and non-MLB legs.”
The league’s investigation uncovered that the infielder “ … bet more than $150,000 on baseball, with $87,319 of that on MLB-related bets (an average of approximately $378 per bet). Of the over 200 MLB bets Marcano placed over this period, 25 of those bets included Pirates games while he was assigned to the Pirates’ Major League Club. Marcano did not appear in any of the games on which he placed bets, however, because all of Marcano’s Pirates-related bets, and the vast majority of his bets overall, occurred during the period after he suffered a season-ending knee injury on July 24, 2023 and was receiving medical treatment at PNC Park.”
There is no evidence to suggest that Marcano “compromised, influenced, or manipulated” games in any way.
Of those bets he made, Marcano “only won 4.3% of all of his MLB-related bets overall,” and lost every parlay bet he made involving the Pirates.
Given that some of those bets were made while Marcano was undergoing treatment from the Pirates at PNC Park for his knee injury, Marcano’s activity fell under Rule 21(d)(2) of the MLB Rules, which outlines that players cannot place bets on games involving their own team.
As such, his conduct necessitated a permanent ban from major league baseball.
The other four players — Kelly, Groome, Rodríguez, Saalfrank — were all found to have bet on MLB games, but according to the league’s investigation none of their bets involved their own team. For example, Saalfrank “… placed 29 baseball bets, including 28 MLB-related bets and one parlay bet on college baseball games, while he was on a Minor League contract with the Diamondbacks. Saalfrank placed all of his MLB-related bets, including four bets involving the Diamondbacks’ Major League team, while he was assigned to and on the Injured List of the Diamondbacks’ Low-A affiliate.”
The investigation found that Saalfrank “ … bet $445.87 on baseball, with $444.07 of that on MLB-related bets (an average of approximately $15.86 per bet) and with a net loss of $272.64 on MLB bets.”
He won only five of his 28 MLB bets, and lost the single college bet, where he wagered $1.80.
In the announcement from the league Tuesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred issued this statement:
“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. 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.
“Since the Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity perspective 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 with the goal of ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”