Which Five MLB Players Were Disciplined for Betting on Baseball?
On the morning of Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that five players have been disciplined for violating the league’s sports betting rules and policies. Michael Kelly (OAK), Andrew Saalfrank (ARI), Jay Groome (SDP), and José Rodríguez (PHI) have all received one-year suspensions. Tucupita Marcano (SDP) has been declared permanently ineligible to return to MLB.
Although none of the players bet on games they participated in, their actions still breached the league’s regulations. The rules explicitly prohibit players from betting “any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game.”
The standard punishment for betting on any baseball game is a one-year suspension. Betting on a game “with which the bettor has a duty to perform” results in a lifetime ban.
In Marcano’s case, he didn’t bet on any MLB game in which he played, but he did place bets on Pirates games while he was “assigned to the Pirates’ Major League Club” (per MLB). Although MLB announced all five punishments simultaneously, each case is unrelated, with no known connection between the players’ gambling activities.
None of the five players have opted to appeal the league’s decision.
This post by Leo Morgenstern appeared first on Just Baseball.
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