A’s reliever Kelly suspended 1 year for betting on baseball; Padres infielder banned for life

Major League Baseball suspended A’s pitcher Michael Kelly for one year on Tuesday for betting on baseball while he was in the minor leagues.

MLB also permanently banned San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano and suspended three other players for a year after finding the players placed unrelated bets with a legal sportsbook.

Marcano appears to be the first active major leaguer banned under the sport’s gambling provision since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O’Connell in 1924. Pete Rose, baseball’s active career hits leader, famously agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation concluded he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team.

Additionally, minor leaguers Jay Groome of San Diego, José Rodríguez of Philadelphia and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona were banned for one year for betting on major league games.

The league said it was tipped off about the betting activity by a legal sports betting operator. None of the players punished played in any games on which they wagered, and all players denied to MLB they had inside information relevant to their bets or the games they bet on – testimonies that MLB says align with the data received from the sportsbook.

Kelly, 31, placed 10 bets involving nine major-league games as a member of the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in October 2021, according to MLB, including bets on the outcomes, over/under bets on the number of runs scored, and on an individual pitcher’s strikeout total. Three games involved the Astros. Kelly’s account wagered $99.22 total and won $28.30. Despite the meager total of Kelly’s bets, his gambling activity was a violation of the rule in place and will trigger that one-year ban.

“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people.”

In a team statement, the A’s said they were “disappointed” to learn of the news, noting that the bets came prior to Kelly’s time in Oakland.

“We will continue to educate all members of our organization regarding their obligations under the policy,” the statement read in part.

Marcano was found to have placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 MLB-related wagers, between Oct. 16, 2022 and Nov. 1, 2023, totaling over $150,000. The league says 25 of those bets included wagers on Pittsburgh Pirates games while he was on the team’s major league roster. However, he did not appear in any of those games because he was on the injured list following a season-ending knee injury. He was receiving medical treatment at PNC Park during that time. Marcano bet almost exclusively on the outcomes of games and lost all of his parlay bets involving the Pirates, winning just 4.3% of all of his MLB-related bets.

Major League Rule 21, posted in every clubhouse, states betting on any baseball game in which a player, umpire, league official or team employee has no duty to perform results in a one-year suspension. Betting on a game in which the person has a duty to perform results in a lifetime ban.

Kelly has appeared in 28 games for the A’s this season, posting a 2.59 ERA in 31 1/3 innings after arriving from the Guardians last October on waivers. The former Padres first-round pick previously pitched in the big leagues for Cleveland and Philadelphia.