suspended for a performance-enhancing drug violation for the second time in a year<\/a>. The penalty for second-time offenders is a full-season suspension, meaning Profar won\u2019t get any of his $15 million salary in 2026. But Profar\u2019s contract with the Atlanta Braves runs through 2027, meaning he will be paid $15 million in 2027, whether he\u2019s hurt or bad or traded or released. That\u2019s how MLB contracts work.<\/p>\nThe only way Profar wouldn\u2019t get $15 million next year would be if he had a third violation after testing positive for two different banned substances in 2024 and \u201925. In baseball\u2019s drug program, it\u2019s three strikes and you\u2019re out in the form of a lifetime ban. Players get an average of 10 random tests a year, including in the offseason, under Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, which was established in an agreement between the Commissioner\u2019s Office and the Players Association.<\/p>\n
So while Profar\u2019s mistakes have cost him tens of millions \u2014 he forfeited roughly $5.8 million of his $12 million salary last year for an 80-game ban \u2014 he still stands to make more than $20 million of the three-year, $42 million contract he signed with the Braves in January 2025.<\/p>\n
Sure, Profar has to deal with the humiliation of being caught and the bad publicity that comes with it. But that all dies down eventually. The three-year deal he signed with Atlanta came after a career year in his age-31 season with the San Diego Padres. His salary then? A million dollars. Profar\u2019s biggest payday before Atlanta was a three-year, $21 million deal with the Padres. The most he had ever made in a single season? Just under $8 million.<\/p>\n
Whenever I see news regarding performance-enhancing drug violations, my mind instantly goes back to a conversation I had a dozen years ago with a veteran player inside the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 clubhouse. I don\u2019t remember how the talk turned to steroids, but I do remember asking why guys would put their entire lives and careers at risk.<\/p>\n
He laughed. I had it all wrong. Guys didn\u2019t take performance-enhancing drugs thinking they were risking their careers. Many of them did it so they could have careers \u2014 so they could elevate their stats, sign a big multiyear deal and set themselves and their families up for life. Sure, there was a risk of getting caught and forfeiting some pay. But baseball contracts are guaranteed. So as long as they didn\u2019t get caught three times, teams were on the hook to pay them.<\/p>\n
Big risk, big reward. And until that reward goes away, the risk will always be worth it to certain players.<\/p>\n
Atlanta isn\u2019t totally blameless in this mess. Profar\u2019s deal, which could go down as one of the worst free-agent contracts in history, was met with a healthy dose of skepticism the moment it happened. There was a certain buyer-beware element. Still, it\u2019s not like the Braves could have drug-tested him themselves before he inked it. They are as powerless now as they were when they signed him.<\/p>\n
Any change to the current penalty system \u2014 80 games for first-time offenders, a full season for second-time offenders and a lifetime ban for the third \u2014 would have to be collectively bargained for and agreed upon by the commissioner\u2019s office and the players\u2019 association. In previous CBA negotiations, commissioners tried to modify existing rules to allow teams with multiple offenders the ability to void contracts, particularly when the violating player had recently signed a multiyear deal.<\/p>\n
One such proposal would have had violators earning the major-league minimum the following year. Another, which came in the wake of Marlins star Dee Gordon\u2019s suspension a few months after signing a five-year, $50 million extension in 2016, would have allowed certain termination or renegotiation rights for teams when a player is suspended for at least 80 games (pitcher Ervin Santana had served an 80-game suspension in April 2015 after signing a four-year deal with Minnesota that offseason). In all cases, the union declined.<\/p>\n
Baseball\u2019s contracts are difficult to void as currently constructed, even when a player breaks the rules not once but twice, and even when one can reasonably argue that the drug violations directly impacted performance. There\u2019s a clause in the CBA that allows teams to argue that drug policy violations caused a player under contract not to fulfill its terms, but that would be a tough grievance to win. No team has even tried.<\/p>\n
Profar\u2019s suspension starts Friday. His appeal, which will be handled by the players\u2019 association, will be expedited. It\u2019s been more than a decade since a drug violation has been overturned on appeal, meaning that despite nearly every athlete\u2019s statement that his violation was accidental and the drug entered his system unknowingly, genuine mistakes are rare.<\/p>\n
The current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of 2026, and while there will be many more contentious issues discussed, it\u2019s past time to tighten up drug violations, which have been in effect since 2014. I\u2019m all for players\u2019 rights but wonder if we\u2019ve gone too far. If punishments don\u2019t adequately fit the crime, if there\u2019s a way to make life-changing money after a second failed drug test, how do you actually clean up the game?<\/p>\n
Pitcher Justin Verlander has said first-time offenders shouldn\u2019t be allowed to play in and impact games while they wait for an appeal. Veteran pitcher Miles Mikolas said on Thursday\u2019s episode of the \u201cFoul Territory\u201d podcast that he\u2019s against the union, which is player-funded, going to bat for Profar. \u201cHe\u2019s got plenty of money and time now to defend himself without the need of the players\u2019 association,\u201d Mikolas said. \u201cI don\u2019t think the PA should be doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Profar, who abruptly left Team Netherlands<\/a> ahead of the World Baseball Classic when news of his suspension came out, will eventually have to take responsibility for his actions. He\u2019ll explain why, on the heels of one drug violation and financial security, he failed another test. But what will it matter? He will be a much richer man after the drug policy violations than he was before.<\/p>\nThe sport has come a long way since the juiced glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s, enacting frequent testing, punishment and public shame. You want to give players one mulligan? Fine. But second-time offenders should be out of the game. At the very least, any multi-year contract should be able to be voided or reworked by teams. Players awaiting appeals should not be allowed to play.<\/p>\n
Concerned about being overly harsh, I texted a few current and former players, expecting some pushback. I got none.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t condone any of this,\u201d said one player, \u201cBut the way the system is set up, it\u2019s not hard to see how it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With all due respect to the baseball gods, sometimes two strikes are more than enough. In Jurickson Profar\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[4996,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-522526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522526","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=522526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}