{"id":399230,"date":"2026-01-09T22:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399230\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:40:09","slug":"free-agent-outfielder-max-kepler-suspended-80-games-by-mlb-following-positive-drug-test-nanaimonewsnow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399230\/","title":{"rendered":"Free agent outfielder Max Kepler suspended 80 games by MLB following positive drug test | NanaimoNewsNOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kepler accepted the suspension without contesting the discipline in a grievance, a person familiar with the process told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Kepler, who turns 33 next month, is an 11-year major league veteran who spent last season with the Philadelphia Phillies after playing his first 10 seasons with the Minnesota Twins. He became a free agent after the World Series.<\/p>\n

Fourteen players were suspended last year for positive tests, including two under the major league program. Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar was banned for 80 games<\/a> on March 31 and Philadelphia Phillies closer Jos\u00e9 Alvarado for 80 games<\/a> on May 25.<\/p>\n

Even if Kepler doesn\u2019t have a contract by opening day in March, MLB and the union usually allow a suspended free agent to serve his penalty as long as he is attempting to reach a deal with teams.<\/p>\n

Kepler hit .216 with 18 homers and 52 RBIs last year after agreeing to a $10 million, one-year contract<\/a>. He was slowed in 2024 by left patellar tendinitis and had core surgery after the season to repair a sports hernia.<\/p>\n

Kepler grew up in Germany and signed with the Twins at age 16 in 2009. He has a .235 average with 179 homers and 560 RBIs in his big league career.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kepler accepted the suspension without contesting the discipline in a grievance, a person familiar with the process told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,462,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-399230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-mlb","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}