The big MLB news yesterday centered on drug suspensions, as two NL Easy players were reportedly linked to PEDs. The Phillies\u2019 Johan Rojas was in the second case of the day, but the first was far more prominent: the Braves\u2019 Jurickson Profar.<\/p>\n
If that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because the exact same thing happened to Profar last spring during the first season of his three-year deal with Atlanta. That was an 80-game ban, but this is a full-season penalty. Although Profar is appealing, it sure seems likely that his Braves career is going to go down in the books of infamy \u2014 if not only for its darkly comedic nature. How much is he actually going to end up playing with Atlanta on this contract anyway? Also, Profar was about half an hour away from leading off a Netherlands WBC exhibition game against the Orioles when the news dropped. Naturally, his hasty replacement (Ray-Patrick Didder) clubbed a leadoff homer. Oh, baseball.<\/p>\n
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So Profar\u2019s suspension got us thinking about past PED cases in MLB history. Obviously this one doesn\u2019t apply because Profar was just penalized last year, but which player was involved in MLB\u2019s most surprising PED controversy from the past? You can go back as far as you\u2019d like, whether a suspension policy was in play or not. Alex Rodriguez\u2019s first scandal could apply, though the second with Biogenesis, which banged his 2014 season, was less of a shock (though more salacious). Maybe you were taken aback by Robinson Can\u00f3\u2019s suspensions that derailed his possible Hall of Fame track. Andy Pettitte\u2019s HGH ties currently qualify under the \u201cbummer\u201d category. If you\u2019re just looking at body type, it is still odd to consider that string bean Dee Strange-Gordon got a suspension in 2016.<\/p>\n
I think my gut answer would be one of the first players suspended for PEDs, Rafael Palmeiro. The policy was new in 2005 and Palmeiro emphatically testified before Congress amid its overall MLB investigation. He wagged his finger and insisted that he never used. Impressionable teenager that I was, I believed him, especially because it\u2019s not as though accuser Jos\u00e9 Canseco seemed 100-percent reliable. So I cheered when Raffy joined the 3,000 Hit Club that July for Baltimore. Since he also had 500 homers, he was a lock for Cooperstown \u2026 until he got hit with a PED suspension less than a month later. Holy moly, that was a time. He denied it furiously (still does to this day), implicated a teammate, wore earplugs once after returning from suspension because Toronto was booing him so loudly, and saw his 20-year career end with a whimper with the O\u2019s sending him home by September. Yeesh.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s my answer. What\u2019s yours?<\/p>\n
Today on the site, Matt will continue our World Baseball Classic preview* by diving into Pool C, which is led by Shohei Ohtani\u2019s defending champion Japan. Jonathan will consider the context of Jazz Chisholm Jr.\u2019s big contract request with a comparison discussion, Sam will preview Clarke Schmidt\u2019s comeback effort from July 2025 Tommy John surgery, Estev\u00e3o will celebrate the birthday of a long-ago Bay Area baseball star who wore the pinstripes before Joe DiMaggio, and after the spring training game, John will mull over the division rival Rays and if they have any more surprises in store for 2026.<\/p>\n
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*By the way, the WBC formally begins tonight! Pool C will kick it off from Tokyo, where Australia and Chinese Taipei will square off at 10pm ET (it\u2019s noon local on March 5th).<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Matchup<\/p>\n
New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox<\/p>\n
Time: 1:05 p.m. EST<\/p>\n
Video: ESPN<\/p>\n
Venue: JetBlue Park, Fort Myers, FL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The big MLB news yesterday centered on drug suspensions, as two NL Easy players were reportedly linked to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[138799,4996,64,63,613,5156,29669,2755,16061,258813,7319,591,2704,258811,258812,258810,2274,258814,5149,85,26605,3920],"class_list":{"0":"post-518153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alex-rodriguez","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-baltimore","13":"tag-boston-red-sox","14":"tag-clarke-schmidt","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-jazz-chisholm-jr","17":"tag-johan-rojas","18":"tag-jurickson-profar","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-new-york-yankees","21":"tag-north-port","22":"tag-ped-suspension","23":"tag-rafael-palmeiro","24":"tag-rays","25":"tag-robinson-cano","26":"tag-shohei-ohtani","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-suspension","29":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}