The Marlins are nearing a minor league contract with veteran infielder and former American League MVP Miguel Tejada, reports Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes (Spanish Twitter link). The 39-year-old Tejada is a client of Relativity Sports.
Tejada received a 105-game suspension last season for a pair of positive tests for a banned amphetamine (Adderall), resulting in a 25-game and 80-game suspension, as he had already tested positive for Adderall once in the past. Tejada also faced potential punishment from the Biogenesis scandal, but Major League Baseball gave him a choice between accepting his 105-game ban for Adderall use or facing further punishment due to his Biogenesis link.
Prior to last year’s suspension issues, he’d been playing with the Royals in a utility infield capacity, batting .288/.317/.378 with three homers in 167 plate appearances. That marked his first big league action since 2011, as he sat out the 2012 season entirely.
Tejada is a career .285/.336/.456 hitter in parts of 16 seasons with the A’s, Orioles, Astros, Royals, Giants and Padres. The six-time All-Star took home AL MVP honors in 2002 when he hit .308/.354/.508 with 34 home runs for the Athletics, but his legacy has been tainted by connections to performance enhancing drugs and the falsification of his age, in which he led Major League teams to believe he was two years younger than he actually is.
