Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal as been suspended 50 games after testing positive for a high testosterone level, the team announced.
"We were disappointed to learn of the suspension of Yasmani Grandal for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention & Treatment Program," said the team in a statement. "We fully support Major League Baseball's policy and its efforts to eliminate performance enhancing drugs from our game. Per the protocol outlined by Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement, we will not comment further on this matter.”
Grandal, 23, hit .297/.394/.469 with eight homers in 226 plate appearances for San Diego last season, his first taste of the big leagues. He was acquired from the Reds in the Mat Latos trade. Grandal was slated to be the team's starting catcher next year, potentially freeing Nick Hundley up for a trade. Those plans — as well as a decision to potentially non-tender John Baker — may have to change.
Whoa
So much for Nick Hundley trade rumours.
This might actually increase them.
wow… disappointing to know it’s still out there. Penalty needs to be raised
I disagree, for guys who work hard enough to make it to the big leagues (PEDs or not), losing the paycheck and experience of a third of a season seems to be harsh enough, not to mention the stigma that is attached for the rest of your career.
Why not keep striving for a league with players who have worked hard without PEDS? The loss of paycheck and experience, as well as the stigma is self-inflicted by the unnecessary risk that they knowingly take. Higher penalty, like say a year, and we could very well avoid these embarrassments.
awesome… another cheater
Glad we didn’t trade Mesoraco now
With his rage, you would think he would be the one out the two of them that could be linked to this…
Well he had one incident, and it was 1 inning after he suffered a monster concussion after Maybin crushed into him at the plate. He is a nice kid with absolutely no problems, besides that 1 play
He has thrown temper tantrums in the dugout multiple times. Seems like a passionate player, but just needs some growing up…
That’s what they used to say about paul O’neil. Six rings later he was still a hothead.
Very disappointing…
Not to late to change your A.J. Pierzynski FA projection
I’m glad that MLB has been busting people for drug use lately. It’s good for the game, it lets everyone play on an even playing field.
Honestly, how hard is it to just eat steak, chicken, pork, and fish for your “bulking up” needs?
Not too hard, but chemicals give you an extra step or two you couldn’t get otherwise.
Yes, but they are more dangerous for your career and nowhere near as delicious.
can’t wait to hear how this ”accidentaly” happended
“Drugs are bad, You shouldn’t do drugs. If you do them, your bad… because drugs are bad. mkay. It’s a bad thing to do drugs…so don’t be bad…by doing drugs … mkay. That’s be bad … coz drugs are bad.”
“If you have an elevated testosterone level, you’re gonna have a bad time.”
Just when he thought he was going to get his chance at a starting gig in the show….
I can understand a guy like Colon doing this because of the low risk/high reward. But why Grandal? He has his whole career ahead of him and this is just a colossally stupid thing to do.
Gotta say, MLB is getting pretty good at catching these guys now.
How could you know that?
That’s extremely disappointing seeing as I was really pulling for the guy.
Hey in all fairness, he does play in pet-co park now so it made sense to a degree. But still, definitely and I mean DEFINITELY doesn’t substantiate the fact that its ok to cheat in baseball. Hopefully after his suspension he can continue to progress and let this issue not get the best of him.
This is a major set back for the Padres. Everything that went right the 2nd half of last season, will be a forgotten memory now that Grandal got caught. I could see this really hanging over the Padres heads next spring and holding them back from what could be a pretty good season.
I hope Grandal can hire the same guys who got Braun off the hook.
Really? You want this guy to get away with it? Since you obviously do, then i’m guessing you’d like it if MLB did away with their drug policy.
Interpreting it wrong, Beersy is a Padres fan and is hoping Grandal would get back so the Padres don’t suffer from as big of a blow…
Thank you for reading between the lines. I guess I forgot the ”
” at the end of my original comment.
Have you seen the press release on the Padres site from Fowler about this. Sure seems like the higher ups are not impressed, as they should be, but they seem extremely disappointed.
I would be disappointed if my star catcher who I invested quite a bit in was suspended for 50 games, and I had no idea what his actual abilities are without PED’s.
Grandal seemed like a good kid.
No if he did the crime he should do the time, but the way Braun somehow got out of his suspension is remarkable. I do not condone cheating and truly wish he hadn’t as a Padre fan, but if the facts say he did, then I believe he should sit out his suspension, which he will. I just hope that he doesn’t come up with some lame excuse, like so many others. Take it like a man Yasmani.
dissapointed as hell
The problem is many of these guys could easily have been using PED’s since the minors, which is one reason they reached the majors. They just get lazy with their use or use a new product and get busted (or the testing finally catches up to whatever they have been using). The big muscular guy we think they are might not be the real player. We have no true way of knowing how many guys are using HGH, for example, because the testing just isn’t very good yet on HGH.
I agree that there should be some sort of responsibility on all levels to continue to shift baseball culture away from PED’s. However what your suggesting is ridiculous, really a 15mil fine? Your going to fine 10-20% of most teams salary for one of their star players being caught with drugs? The problem with fining the organizations is that they would then require a drug test when signing any FA, and I don’t know how well that would go over with their agents and the MLBPA. ( I would hope that the MLBPA would be all for it). I would rather see an increase in player punishment, since it is ultimately their choice to use PED’s not the organizations, they are not quite so simply an honest bystander.
Also your suggesting that the player who makes the decision to cheat gets less of a punishment than the organization who at worse turned a blind eye, but most likely didn’t even know about it. That’s like if you witnessed a robbery, and did nothing to help the investigation and got a year of jail time for accessory, and the actual thief only got 90 days house arrest and community service.
There are 3 reasons i can think of off the top of my head why something like you are suggesting will never happen. 1. The owners themselves would never ratify that drug policy. 2. It would be litigated each and every time it was enforced. 3. There would be some unscrupulous owners and GM’s that would spend less money on masking agents/ways to cover it up and perhaps even encourage PED use by suggesting to certain players that they can hide the use.