{"id":613454,"date":"2026-04-29T14:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/613454\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:51:10","slug":"ex-mlb-player-alexei-ramirez-tested-positive-for-steroids-at-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/613454\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-MLB player Alexei Ram\u00edrez tested positive for steroids at WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Former Chicago White Sox<\/a> shortstop Alexei Ram\u00edrez<\/a> tested positive for four anabolic steroids at the World Baseball Classic in March where he set a record as its oldest ever player.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Cuban tested positive for “metabolites of mesterolone, metandienone, oxandrolone and stanozolol,” the International Testing Agency said Wednesday in announcing his provisional ban from the sport.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez played nine years in Major League Baseball mostly at shortstop for the White Sox, San Diego Padres<\/a> and Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>. He was runner-up in the American League rookie of the year vote in 2008 won by the Rays’ Evan Longoria.<\/p>\n

An Olympic champion with Cuba at the 2004 Athens Games, Ram\u00edrez was on the silver medal-winning team at the WBC two years later won by Japan. There, the 43-year-old Roger Clemens set the previous record for oldest player by representing the United States.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez returned to the Cuba roster 20 years later as a bench player to break the mark.<\/p>\n

The ITA said it notified Ram\u00edrez of the result from a sample taken during the tournament. Cuba did not advance from the pool phase.<\/p>\n

The agency based in Lausanne, Switzerland, said the steroids in question are “associated with promoting rapid muscle growth, increased strength and enhanced physical performance.”<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez hit 115 home runs in the majors and had 590 RBI in his regular-season career through 2016.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Former Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ram\u00edrez tested positive for four anabolic steroids at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[266331,2318,352,363,3,266330,99],"class_list":["post-613454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-266331","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-espn","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-ramirez-alexei","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}