MLB bans player for life, four others punished, for betting on baseball

Marcano is believed to be the first active player to be kicked out of baseball for betting since Jimmy O’Connell of the New York Giants in 1924. He is also the most prominent person to be permanently banned for wagering on baseball since all-time hits leader Pete Rose accepted his lifetime banishment while he was a manager in 1989.

The other four players to receive punishments—Oakland’s Michael Kelly, San Diego’s Jay Groome, Philadelphia’s José Rodríguez and Arizona’s Andrew Saalfrank—were all caught betting on MLB games while they were in the minor leagues. Kelly is currently in the majors with the A’s. Saalfrank pitched for the Diamondbacks in the World Series last season.

There is no evidence of games being manipulated, MLB said.

Through a representative, Marcano declined to comment. Kelly, Groome, Rodríguez and Saalfrank couldn’t immediately be reached.

“The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday.

“We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behaviour that are legal for other people.”

MLB said it learned of the betting activity from a legal gambling operator in March, prompting an investigation. In 2022 and 2023, Marcano bet more than $87,000 ($AUD 130, 000) on MLB games, 25 of which included Pittsburgh Pirates games when he was on that team. He didn’t appear in any of the games he bet on, and the vast majority of his wagers occurred after he suffered a season-ending knee injury last July.

The news of Marcano’s banishment comes amid a rapidly widening net of gambling scandals that have enveloped American sports, six years after the Supreme Court opened the door for legal sports betting. In April, the National Basketball Association banned Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter for violating the league’s gambling policy, including providing confidential information to bettors and limiting his own participation for betting purposes.

The spectre of gambling has loomed over baseball all season as well.

Federal prosecutors have charged the longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani with stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani to pay off debts for an illegal bookmaker. Ippei Mizuhara reached an agreement to plead guilty last month. Meanwhile, MLB is also investigating David Fletcher, Ohtani’s teammate on the Los Angeles Angels from 2018 through 2023, for allegedly betting on sports with the same illegal bookmaker.

The language of Rule 21, which outlines MLB’s gambling policy, is posted prominently in every clubhouse. Players are allowed to bet legally on sports other than baseball. A player betting on a baseball game involving teams other than his own results in a one-year suspension. Betting on a game involving your own team comes with a lifetime ban. (In 2015, MLB fined Miami Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart for placing bets with an illegal bookmaker on sports other than baseball.)

Marcano signed with the Padres as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela in 2016. He made his MLB debut in April 2021 and was traded to the Pirates that July. The Padres claimed him off waivers in November of last year.

In 149 MLB games, Marcano has hit .217 with five home runs. He was set to earn $746,000 ($AUD 1.1 million) this year and has made more than $2.7 million ($AUD 4.06 million) during his career, according to Spotrac.

-- The Wall Street Journal