Let’s get one thing straight—MLB didn’t go soft. Reinstating Jay Groome, Michael Kelly, José Rodríguez, and Andrew Saalfrank after one-year betting bans isn’t a free pass. It’s a cold reminder: you mess with the integrity of the game, you sit. But if you own it, serve your time, and come back clean—there’s a way forward.
This isn’t 1919. We’re in an era where legal sports betting is a multi-billion-dollar machine, and the lines between player, fan, and bettor get blurrier every season. That’s not an excuse. But it does explain why young players might stumble—especially when league policies are clearer on banned substances than on DraftKings apps sitting on every MLB homepage.
Rule 21 isn’t subtle. “Any player who bets on baseball shall be declared permanently ineligible.” You’ll find it in every clubhouse. But only Tucupita Marcano crossed that fatal line—betting on his own team. The others? They bet on NBA, NFL, college games. Dumb? Absolutely. Corrupt? Not by the league’s own standards.
And that nuance matters.
Michael Kelly came back throwing heat. A scoreless outing for the A’s in his first game back—proof that you can bounce back if you’ve still got the goods and a clean slate. Saalfrank’s back in development. Rodríguez and Groome? Still unsigned, but alive in the system.
What MLB did here is walk a tightrope. They sent a message—gambling is no joke. But they also reinforced that rehabilitation matters. In a time when other leagues (cough NFL) hand out uneven penalties depending on star power, MLB actually came off as—dare we say—balanced?
The takeaway is this: second chances aren’t guaranteed, but they’re possible. That’s good for players. It’s even better for the game. Baseball is slow, but it learns. If we want a future where fans can trust outcomes and players can be human without being villains, we’ll need more of this kind of consistency. Gambling’s not going anywhere. Neither is baseball. Now let’s hope the leagues can keep both honest.
