PITTSBURGH, Pa. — When Tucupita Marcano first entered professional baseball, he was unimposing both in terms of physical demeanor and personality.
He weighed around 130 to 140 pounds, and was soft spoken. Part of the San Diego Padres’ 2016 international free agent class, the Venezuelan native signed for $320,000 — life-changing money at the time.
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The San Diego organization hoped he’d grow into himself as he got older. He was a hard-worker, and came without drama.
And that remained the case until Tuesday morning, when Major League Baseball announced the 24-year-old Padres infielder received a lifetime ban from the game for betting on and against his team. His bets on baseball totaled more than $150,000. He became the first MLB player banned for life for gambling on baseball since Pete Rose.
“I really liked him,” said Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski, who was also in the Padres system and was traded to the Pirates with Marcano before the 2021 trade deadline. “Me and him spent a lot of time together.”
Suwinski appeared to be as surprised as everyone else by the events of the last 24 hours.
“I think I’d have to figure out a little bit more about what happened before I can come up with a judgment,” he said. “Obviously you don’t want people to bet against their own team. I feel like that would be common sense.”
The exact nature of Marcano’s bets was not made public in the league’s announcement of the ban. He placed 387 total bets on baseball, including 231 that were related to MLB. Of those bets, 25 involved the Pirates while he was assigned to the major league roster and rehabbing a season-ending knee injury.
His Pirates bets, the league said, were typically betting on the team to either win or lose, or on the number of runs that would be scored in the game. He lost all his Pirates bets. Marcano denied that “any outcomes in the baseball games on which he placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way,” according to the release, and the league said it has no evidence to the contrary. Marcano did not appeal the decision. His agent did not immediately return requests for comment.
“It’s sad. Anybody that spent time around Tucupita, he was a good kid,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “I was so sad when I heard the news.
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“This is the one non-negotiable that we have in our sport. It’s the one rule that we stand up at the beginning of spring training, it is read to every player. It is posted in our clubhouse. There’s a standard to being a major league player. And this is one of the gold standards, if not the gold standard.”
Marcano was a utility infielder during his professional tenure. He mostly played middle infield, but got some looks at third base and in the outfield. He was a light hitter, posting a career .589 OPS with five career homers and 34 RBIs over 149 MLB games. Marcano debuted with the Padres in 2021, was traded to the Pirates that same year, and then appeared for the Pirates in 2022 and 2023. He returned to the Padres this past offseason when he was claimed off waivers by San Diego.
Just reaching the big leagues was impressive for a player who was never a true top prospect. He didn’t showcase power in the minor leagues. But he instead was elevated by a combination of base hits, strong defense and speed.
“He plays with a chip on his shoulder, like he has something to prove,” Padres international scouting director Chris Kemp told The San Diego Union-Tribune in a 2018 interview. “He’s a winning baseball player.”
“It’s a dream I’m still in the process of realizing,” Marcano told the Union-Tribune in that same 2018 story. “But I think the ultimate goal is to be (in the majors). To be here would be a dream come true.”
That’s what makes this all so shocking and disheartening for those who played with him. Marcano wasn’t the only player suspended on Tuesday. Four other players — Oakland A’s reliever Michael Kelly, Padres minor leaguer Jay Groome, Philadelphia Phillies minor leaguer José Rodriguez and Arizona Diamondbacks minor leaguer Andrew Saalfrank all were hit with one-year bans.
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Their cases are different. None of them bet more than $750 total on baseball, with Kelly’s wagers coming in at less than $100.
“You don’t do it,” said veteran Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who was teammates with Marcano last year. “Kind of like steroids. You don’t do it. People still do it. But the people that do it are going to get caught. Hopefully.”
McCutchen remembers Marcano like many others. “Quiet” is the only descriptor he used.
No one had a bad word to say about him. And it appeared as though there was an understanding that his actions didn’t actively impact his then-team’s chances to win or otherwise threaten the integrity of games already in the record books.
But there’s also an unambiguous understanding that betting on or against your own team can disrupt the sport’s integrity. The tale of Marcano’s unlikely rise to the big leagues was impressive. But now that part of his story is a footnote compared to how he’ll be remembered by the baseball world.
“Nobody’s perfect,” McCutchen said. “It’s unfortunate. What you do in the dark will come to light. Now you’ve got to deal with the consequences.”
— The Athletic’s Dennis Lin contributed to this report.
(Top photo: Joe Robbins / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)