{"id":95399,"date":"2026-01-10T00:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95399\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T00:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:45:17","slug":"max-keplers-free-agency-takes-massive-hit-with-80-game-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95399\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Kepler’s free agency takes massive hit with 80-game suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an ugly offseason for Max Kepler.<\/p>\n

MLB suspended the free agent outfielder for 80 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance, the league announced Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that free agent outfielder Max Kepler has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for Epitrenbolone, a performance enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

\"PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia Phillies left fielder Max Kepler (17) runs to third base after hitting a triple against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth inning during Game 2 of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Citizens Bank Park. Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Trenbolone is an anabolic steroid used to promote muscle growth in cattle and is not medically approved for human use.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old, who spent last season with the Phillies and went on to the NLDS, will certainly see a massive blow to his value in the free agency market due to the ruling from MLB.<\/p>\n

Kepler, coming off a one-year, $10 million deal with Philly, had a calculated market value of just under $7.6 million, per Spotrac<\/a> \u2014 before his suspension for half of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Across 127 games last season, he held a slash line of .216\/.300\/.391 while hitting 18 home runs and knocking in 52 RBIs.<\/p>\n

Kepler is heading into his 12th season in the league after he made his debut in 2015 with the Twins, with whom he played for 10 seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an ugly offseason for Max Kepler. MLB suspended the free agent outfielder for 80 games for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44542,20,3473,9,11,10,5389,319,44543],"class_list":{"0":"post-95399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-max-kepler","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-mlb-free-agency","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-suspensions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}