Two Major League Baseball players and three minor league players received sports betting suspensions Tuesday, including Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Tucupita Marcano, who received a lifetime ban. Marcano wagered more than $150,000 on baseball games, including $87,319 on MLB games.
None of the five players competed in games they wagered on, and there isn’t any evidence to suggest game outcomes were compromised, according to MLB’s release.
“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,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a press release. “The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century.”
In addition to Marcano’s lifetime ban from Major League Baseball, Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly, Padres pitcher Jay Groome, Phillies infielder Jose Rodriguez, and Diamondbacks pitcher Andrew Saalfrank all received one-year suspensions. None of those four players wagered more than $1,000 on MLB games.
Marcano’s wagering habits were by far the most extensive of the group, and he’s the only one of the five players to bet on games involving his assigned team.
Betting data reflects that Marcano placed 387 bets on baseball, including 231 MLB bets, from the periods Oct. 16, 2022 through Oct. 23, 2022 and July 12, 2023 through Nov. 1, 2023.
The wagers were placed via a legal sports betting app, which allowed the sportsbook and integrity monitoring services to flag the past wagers in March of this year.
Manfred credited Major League Baseball’s work with regulated sportsbooks and integrity monitoring services in helping catch the wagering violations.
“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,” Manfred said. “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.”
A review of Marcano’s betting history found that he placed 25 wagers on Pirates games while assigned to Pittsburgh. He didn’t play in any of those games, as he missed the contests with injury.
Marcano’s primary bets on Pirates games were moneyline and total bets. He lost every parlay he bet on the Pirates and won just 4.3% of his MLB bets overall.
News of Marcano’s lifetime ban comes on the heels of another MLB betting scandal, with Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, facing criminal charges for stealing $16 million from Ohtani to wager on sports. In the NBA, Jontay Porter also recently received a lifetime ban for sports betting violations.