Major League Baseball announced a lifetime ban for infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano of the San Diego Padres on Tuesday for betting on baseball games.
Four others, including Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly and three minor leaguers, each received one-year bans for violating the league’s sports betting rules and policies.
An MLB investigation determined that the five players violated Rule 21, which says players who wager on games in which the bettor “has a duty to perform” will be declared permanently ineligible. Those who bet on games in which they have “no duty to perform” will be declared ineligible for one year.
Commissioner Rob Manfred issued the following 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.”
The minor league players named in Tuesday’s report are pitcher Jay Groome of the Padres, infielder Jose Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Phillies and pitcher Andrew Saalfrank of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Marcano, 24, has yet to play this season as he rehabs a torn ACL. According to MLB, he placed 387 bets on baseball (including 231 MLB-related wagers) totaling more than $150,000 in 2022 and 2023. Twenty-five of those bets were on Pittsburgh games while he was assigned to the Pirates’ major league club, although he did not appear in any of those games.
“There is no evidence to suggest — and Marcano denies — that any outcomes in the baseball games on which he placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way,” read the MLB press release.
Marcano is a career .217 hitter with five home runs and 34 RBIs in 149 games with the Padres (2021) and Pirates (2022-23).
Kelly, 31, is 3-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 28 relief appearances this season, his first with the A’s. A first-round pick by San Diego in 2011, he is 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA in 46 career games (no starts) with the Phillies (2022), Cleveland Guardians (2023) and Oakland.
According to the MLB probe, Kelly placed 10 bets involving nine MLB games in October 2021 when he was with the Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land, Texas. He wagered a total of just under $100 and did not appear in any of the games he wagered on.
Groome, 25, has been in the minors since the Boston Red Sox drafted him in the first round in 2016. The left-hander has no decisions and a 3.60 ERA in three starts this season for Triple-A El Paso.
Betting data acquired during the investigation shows that Groome placed 32 MLB-related bets totaling about $450 from 2020-21, with 24 of those wagers involving the Red Sox while he was assigned to their High-A affiliate in Greenville, S.C.
Rodriguez, 23, appeared in one game for the Chicago White Sox in 2023 and scored a run. This season, the Phillies prospect is hitting .265 with four homers and 18 RBIs in 38 games at Double-A Reading.
Rodriguez reportedly wagered about $750 on 31 baseball bets (28 MLB-related bets) from 2021-22 while he was on a minor league contract with the White Sox.
Saalfrank, 26, made two relief appearances for the Diamondbacks in April and allowed four runs in one inning of work. In 2023, the left-hander made 10 scoreless relief appearances in the regular season and posted a 3.18 ERA in 11 postseason appearances, including three scoreless outings against the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
The MLB betting data shows that Saalfrank placed 28 MLB-related bets totaling about $445 from 2021-22. Four of those bets involved Diamondbacks games while he was on the injured list of Arizona’s Low-A affiliate.
–Field Level Media
