Both Tucupita Marcano and Shohei Ohtani have had gambling scandals this season but have seen two completely different outcomes. This could lead people to ask why did Marcano receive a lifetime ban while Ohtani walked away unscathed?

The obvious answer is money.

Marcano was a lifetime .217 hitter over his only 3 seasons. His other career stats were 88 hits, 5 HR’s, 7 SB’s, and a .269 OBP. Ohtani’s yearly stats dwarf Marcano’s career stats and that is before we even discuss his pitching stats.

Marcano was an easy player to ban considering he did not appear to be on a trajectory to be a highly marketable player, Ohtani on the other hand IS highly marketable.

Ohtani’s Dodgers’ jersey set Fanatics sales records within 48 hours of being available. He appears on several MLB advertisements and is considered by many to be the face of the league. The dollars he brings MLB is something that most likely will not be matched any time soon. He is the first player to pitch and hit successfully at MLB in almost a century. Since Ohtani was a star in Japan before coming stateside, he also brings in a massive amount of money from Japanese and Asian markets.

Simply put he makes MLB too much money for them to ban him. All MLB needed was a scapegoat, enter Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s interpreter.

I personally do not believe that Mizuhara stole $17 million from Ohtani without him noticing. Mizuhara has pleaded guilty to stealing the money and tax fraud and has been ordered to pay restitution to Ohtani as well as $1 million to the IRS, but I would keep an eye out for some offshore accounts. I would be willing to bet MLB would be depositing money in his account for taking the fall in this cover up because this story does not make sense otherwise.

It is bizarre that MLB has had two gambling scandals in the same season considering the last player to receive the lifetime ban for gambling was 35 years ago when none other than Pete Rose was handed his lifetime ban.

For context it is worth noting that 51 players have received a lifetime ban in MLB history, but only 19 of them were for non-gambling reasons. This means that a whopping 63% of all lifetime bans were due to gambling. It is also worth noting that the last person banned before Rose was William D Cox, the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies back in 1943.