Tucupita Marcano, the infielder for San Diego Padres, saw his Major League Baseball career come to an abrupt end this Tuesday, and it wasn’t because of a winning streak.
Rather, he came up short in almost all of the 231 wagers he placed, a detail highlighted by the New York Post.
“In line with Marcano’s usual pattern of betting on baseball, the majority of his wagers involving the Pirates focused on predicting the winner of the game (whether it was the Pirates or their opponents) or forecasting whether the total runs scored in the game would be above or below a predefined threshold,” stated officials from MLB in a press release. “In the end, Marcano’s parlay bets including the Pirates were unsuccessful, and he managed to come out on top in only 4.3% of all his Major League Baseball betting endeavours.”
Apparently, this is how Marcano’s MLB journey ends, decidedly not at the peak. His future in MLB may be over, and judging by the reported figures, his career in gambling wasn’t a shining success either.
Marcano, while on the injury roster for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season, placed these bets. The Post reported:
“Marcano, aged 24, was discovered to have made bets on 387 baseball games, including international matches, from October 16, 2022, to October 23, 2022, and from July 12, 2023, to November 1, 2023, through an authorized betting platform. The athlete, who hails from the Venezuelan town he’s named after, staked over $150,000 on baseball games, with $87,319 of that sum placed on MLB games.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the incident in a statement.
“Upholding the integrity of our sport for the spectators by rigorously applying Major League Baseball’s rules and directives regarding gambling activities remains a topmost concern,” expressed Manfred. “The century-old foundational norm that prohibits those associated with MLB from betting on its games is crucial.
He continued, “We have clearly communicated that the honor of participating in baseball is accompanied by the duty to abstain from engaging in certain actions lawful to the general public. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize sports wagering, we have collaborated with regulated betting operators and other entities to enhance our integrity protection via the transparency a regulated betting environment offers. MLB is dedicated to continuing its substantial investment in monitoring integrity, along with educational and awareness programs, to ensure unfailing compliance with this essential precept of our sport.”
