Tucupita Marcano of the San Diego Padres could receive a lifetime ban from baseball for betting on Pittsburgh Pirates games while he was with the team last season, the Wall Street Journal and ESPN reported Monday.

Marcano and four minor league players currently face potential discipline, the reports said. Marcano, an infielder who has yet to play this season as he rehabs a torn ACL, was reportedly on the injured list when he placed the bets.

Rule 21 of Major League Baseball’s rulebook says any player “who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform” would be declared “permanently” ineligible.

Betting on a game the bettor is not connected to in any way results in a one-year ban.

The Marcano case follows the high-profile instance of Shohei Ohtani, the two-way star whose interpreter Ippei Mizuhara admitted to stealing Ohtani’s money to pay off sports gambling debts.

MLB is still investigating Ohtani’s former Los Angeles Angels teammate, David Fletcher, for betting on sports with an illegal bookmaker that also worked with Mizuhara. Also recently, the NBA banned Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors for life for disclosing confidential information to bettors and betting on games himself.

Marcano, a 24-year-old from Venezuela, broke into the major leagues with the Padres in 2021 before being traded to the Pirates. He returned to San Diego for the 2024 season as a waiver claim. In 149 career games, Marcano is a .217 hitter with five home runs and 34 RBIs.

–Field Level Media