San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has received a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling, Major League Baseball announced on its official website Tuesday (June 4).
"San Diego Padres Major League infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano has been declared permanently ineligible for violating MLB’s sports betting rules and policies, including Rule 21(d)(2)," the league said.
Marcano was reported to be among five players under investigation for gambling on Monday (June 3). The other players were identified as Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly and Minor League players Jay Groome (Padres pitcher), José Rodríguez (Philadelphia Phillies infielder) and Andrew Saalfrank (Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher), all of whom received one-year bans.
Betting data shows that Marcano "placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 MLB-related bets among other bets on international baseball games through a legal sportsbook" from October 16, 2022 through October 23, 2022, which included 25 on games involving the Pittsburgh Pirates, his team at the time, most of which occurred during the period in which he suffered a season-ending knee injury. MLB Rule 21 states that "any player or person connected with a club" who bets on games involving their own team is subject to a lifetime ban. MLB hit king Pete Rose, accepted a lifetime ban from baseball in return for the league not making a formal determination about whether or not he bet on baseball during his tenure as the Cincinnati Reds' manager and remains banned from the game and the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Marcano was reported to have bet more than $150,000 on baseball, including $87,319 on MLB-related action and won only 4.3% of the 231 MLB-related bets he placed, according to the league.