San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano banned for life from MLB, Phillies prospect Jose Rodriguez among players suspended for one year

Major League Baseball, brought to you by ESPN Bet, FanDuel Dinger Tuesdays, Bet MGM, and every other sports book operating in North America announced this morning that San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has been permanently banned from the league for gambling on baseball. 

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In a press release, MLB determined that an investigation in Marcano revealed that he bet more than $150,000 on baseball with $87,319 bet specifically on Major League Baseball games. He placed the bets over a week in October 2022 and over a four-month span from July 2023 to November 2023. 

Marcano placed over 200 bets on MLB games, 25 of which involved the Pittsburgh Pirates – when he was on their major league roster. “Almost all” of Marcano’s bets on Pittsburgh involved the Pirates winning or the over/under run total (nice) in his team’s own games. 

Even with that information, there was no evidence that Marcano’s bets actually had any type of influence on the game’s outcome. 

Tucupita Marcano banned for LIFE from MLB

Here is MLB's account of the baseball betting by Tucupita Marcano that caused him to be banned from baseball "permanently."

231 bets on baseball
Baseball bets totaling $87,319
25 bets on the Pirates while he was a Pirates player pic.twitter.com/WTEAslhqel

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) June 4, 2024

The funny part is that Marcano placed 231 MLB-related wagers and won just 4.3% of them. That’s just bad betting. No other way to look at it. 

Along with Tucupita Marcano, Major League Baseball banned for other players for betting, including Philadelphia Phillies minor-league infielder Jose Rodriguez. 

Each of the players listed below have been banned one year for “unrelated violations of the league’s gambling policy”. 

• Oakland Athletics reliever Michael Kelly
• Padres minor-league pitcher Jay Groome
• Philadelphia Phillies minor-league infielder José Rodríguez
• Arizona Diamondbacks minor-league pitcher Andrew Saalfrank

Phillies Prospect Jose Rodriguez

Phillies’ Jose Rodriguez is 23 years old. He hit .265 with a .751 OPS – including four home runs, 18 RBI, 12 stolen bases, and 30 runs scored over 147 at-bats this season with the Reading Fightin’ Phils. His path to The Show will now be delayed at least one year. 

Shohei Ohtani – Prized MLB Cash Cow is Safe

Tough break for these guys. Maybe Major League Baseball will wake up and realize that the league and executives are stuffing their wallets with sports book money while punishing their players is a bad look? 

Probably not. What makes this even more funny is the league completely shelving any formal investigating into their prized cash cow, Shohei Ohtani, and his connection to his interpreter, who looks more and more like a “fall guy” as new bans and suspensions are revealed. 

Funny how that works out. 

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