Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia has been banned permanently from the majors after his third positive PED test, according to a league announcement. Remarkably, Mejia tested positive for the banned substance boldenone after earning two suspensions just last year.
It’s a truly stunning result, made all the more surprising given that Mejia was on track to resume his career with New York. Indeed, he recently agreed to a $2.47MM salary to avoid arbitration. While he was already to sacrifice a good portion of that money to finish serving his second suspension — which was of the 162-game variety — he’ll lose the remainder after today’s news.
Mejia becomes the first player to receive a permanent ban under MLB’s “three strikes and you’re out” PED policy. There is a provision that will allow the 26-year-old righty to seek reinstatement, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com notes on Twitter. But even if successful, he’d have to wait one year to ask and serve a minimum two-year ban.
In a statement, the Mets said that the club is “deeply disappointed” in Mejia. He had seemed destined to return to a prominent place in the club’s pen after finishing out his second ban. While New York seemed primed to cut ties at one point, the upside in Mejia’s cheap contract and rested, youthful arm certainly justified the risk. But Mejia somehow proved unable to avoid PED usage even while subject to stepped-up testing as a prior offender.
After failing to hold down a rotation job in 2014, Mejia had shown real promise in a relief role. He ended that campaign as the team’s closer, posting 28 saves and working to a 2.72 ERA over 56 1/3 innings out of the pen. While he has since been supplanted in the ninth by Jeurys Familia, Mejia certainly seemed to have a plausible chance of winning back a set-up role later in the 2015 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
What an idiot.
Unbelievable
He deserves it too
LOL
Scheduled to make $2.5M this year. Boggles the mind.
What an Idiot
Hell probably sign with some Japan team and become a stud lol see yea you cheater
I don’t know about permanent suspensions, but I’ve read that the Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese leagues observe MLB suspensions.
Didn’t Manny play in Korea while he was suspended?
No. Manny was suspended for 100 games, then eventually had it reduced to 50. He served that in 2012 while in the Oakland organization. He was eventually released from his minor league deal and then went to Taiwan in 2013.
^He’ll
why doez he have to go back to his country? nobody else has to.
Sorry about that comment but as someone who has lived in this country for my entire life and I don’t have the talent to be able to do what he does. To waste an opportunity to live in this country and make millions of dollars and to waste it. It boggles my mind. There are 100s of other prospects from other countries that never get the chance and could be something and this guy wastes a spot that would have been available otherwise I can’t believe it. He was a guy that was very good out of the bullpen and very young and could have been a long term building block or trade asset for the mets. It’s just stupidity.
You’re assuming he was capable of playing without steroids. If you or I had an extreme physical ailment, a doctor would prescribe a steroid. Hell, I’ve been prescribed steroids after extreme allergic attacks, i’m not condoning his behavior or looking at his medicals, but it seems to me his body was not up to the task; in his mind, it was better to use and be able to throw a baseball than not use and not be able to. The downside risk was the same whether taking or not…
Your doctor would never prescribe you an anabolic steroid which is what boldenone is, coritcosteroids are what your doctor gives you to treat an inflammation, COMPLETELY different medications.
some people cannot synthesize testosterone due. to a birth defect, so they’re given hormone injections consistently throughout their lives; in these rare cases a doctor would prescribe some form of androgenic steroid
Well, he may be here on a work visa to do a job he can no longer do. He had trouble playing in 2013 because he couldn’t get his visa, and I have no idea what his current status is.
He can still play in the indy leagues. He is only banned by MLB. You can bet a team in a smaller league would love to get the free publicity of signing him.
Yes, but some other leagues observe MLB suspensions, including Japan and Korea.
Wow. Pretty insane. You would think that after his second suspension he would’ve gotten the message. Heck, he should’ve gotten the message after the first!
All of a sudden the available closers on the market got much more valuable.
Huh? Mejia’s not a closer and there aren’t any on the market.
Why?
You are right re ‘should have gotten the message after the first time’. Check out the list below. Many one timers… Very very few two timers (whether they stopped or just smarter about not getting caught is a different question).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_suspended_for_performance-enhancing_drugs
Wow isn’t he the first to have been permanently banned from playing?
Yes
oh dang
Some people are slow learners. Hope he made his money when he had the chance.
He made about $3.5 million over his career. But if he’s stupid enough to throw away a job that most people can only ever dream of by taking steroids for a 3rd time, I doubt that money will last very long.
Actually, he didn’t earn much of that salary last year.
Yeah I just realized that. That’d put his career earnings at just over $1 million. A lot harder to make that last long, especially since he apparently loves throwing money away.
What. An. Idiot.
That is word-for-word, punctuation mark-for-punctuation mark, what I was going to say.
Some things are just more important than million dollar checks and playing baseball.
Some people are unbelievable. He got to do what millions can only dream of doing for a living and just throws it all away by cheating.
There has to be more to this story. I can understand getting someone with good intentions getting some type of supplement from your buddy and it winds up having a banned substance.
I can even understand being an idiot and doing it again because you’re an overly trusting 20 something year old.
But three times in less than 365 days? There has to be an explanation for this other than attempting to cheat or stupidity. There is no rationale for attempting to cheat a 3rd time.
This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Like, not once, not twice but 3 times in 365 days– you’d think the Met’s trainers would be keeping close tabs on him after the first or second time-or (while I don’t wish to sound redundant)- you’d think that he’d figure it out by the first or second time. That kind of stupidity doesn’t deserve $2.6 mm this season.
Also, I wasn’t referring to your post as dumb, I accidentally hit reply– my bad
They apparently were “bending over backwards for him according to Adam Rubin”, but I would imagine there are some mental health issues (addiction) here rather than a desire to cheat.
A few years ago, there was story about a minor leaguer who was suspended three times in a year or so because the PED he used was supposedly detectable for over a year after use and there was nothing he could do about it. Mejia’s PEDs are supposed to be out of the system after a couple of months. So, he a) is an outler with respect to teh PED staying in his system b) took steroid other than what he tested positive for that stays in the system a year; or c) is very foolish.
Has anyone else been subjected to the permanent ban based in PED testing or is Mejia the first?
Mejia is the first
This is the first under the new program
“Mejia becomes the first player to receive a permanent ban under MLB’s “three strikes and you’re out” PED policy.”
It’s RIGHT THERE in the post you’re commenting on.
Relax, it wasn’t there earlier. It’s common for breaking news posts to be edited for further details.
You can’t GIVE some people the world…
He will now be the #1 closer on everyone’s Mexican league fantasy team!
Idiot. Even that’s an understatement. Congratulations, you’re the first player to be banned from baseball for 3 positive PED tests.
They should put up a urinal in his honor in Cooperstown.
Best. Comment. Ever.
Dude’s in complete shock.
Perhaps Mejia’s problem is he has an addiction? What if he is addicted to whatever it is he was caught for? That’s the only real explanation for someone already caught twice and surely aware of the consequences of a third positive test, If he seeks help, does he deserve a reprieve on a lifetime ban?
This is the only thing that I can think of that will give him a chance for reinstatement in the future. Admit he has a problem, enter rehab, and then make the appeal, after which he has to serve another 2 years. If all goes well for him, he could be pitching in the Majors again by the time he’s 30. If anyone wants him.
Not allowed to appeal after the 3rd strike, he would have had to seek help and tried to appeal after the second one.
Actually if you read the article there is a clause that they can appeal the lifetime ban… Not that he’s likely to get it overturned or another MLB job but he is allowed to appeal.
Yes he is, it’s written right there in the article. He has to wait one year to appeal, and if he’s successful, he has to wait 2 more years to play again.
He had two previous opportunities to receive help.
He wan’t messing around either, didn’t test positive for masking agents or amphetamines or anything like that, straight up anabolic steroids all 3 times (the second time 2 different steroids at once)
That takes guts. Or a very low IQ. Or both.
How does one do this? If you suck but yet still get 2 million just be happy you are playing ball. How do you go a test positive a third time?
Some people never learn. He doesn’t deserve to play baseball so hopefully he won’t ever play again.
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer is he?
The part of me that isn’t laughing actually slightly admires his guts for trying
What a moron. Can’t believe someone could be this dumb and throw away the chance God gave him. Idiot
Judging by his decisions, it seems that steroids likely gave him that chance, not God
Was going to say the same. Was good bc of the steroids.
“!”? Really? Do you care to provide the proof for your statement containing an exclamation mark, as I’d like to get rich on the back of your proof… I will await your reply.
Apart from that, either Mejia is monumentally dumb, or he just didn’t want to play baseball anymore.. Because if you really love the game of baseball, and you’re being paid to play the game you love, how do you jeopardise all of that?
He ended his career with $3,599,600. Wow but if he was stupid enough to test positive 3 times I wonder if he has any of that left.
He’s certainly not smart enough to make it last very long if there happens to be any left, that’s for sure.
He will also need to stretch that out over 60 years, and that’s assuming that it’s not all sunk somewhere. That’s less that $60,000 per year, which is livable, but hardly glamorous. He’s going to need to work.
60k a year in his home country will go a lomg way.
Long*
He didn’t earn most of that, it’s about a million, and then even that was pretty heavily taxed, don’t know the exact amount. He needs to find some other job.
A big chunk of that is last year’s salary, and he didn’t collect much of it.
Everyone is surprised he did the drugs. Maybe he knows he’d never have the ability to be in MLB without them? That could be the reason for 3 flagrant positive tests
Boldenone?
Maybe he eats horse meat
100% serious comment
its an anabolic steroid similar to dianobol.
canseco said he never would have made the majors without steroids. still going on with the undetectable stuff i imagine. plus they juiced the ball last year.
Juiced the ball? Why were offensive numbers down across the game and pitching numbers up?
This isn’t true. Offensive numbers were up from 2014 (which was the low mark since 1972), sabermetrically speaking.
That said, the ball wasn’t juiced, or anything close to that.
-C
The ball was not juiced last year. Offense was down across the game while pitching numbers were up.
You can have lasik surgery to fix your eyes.
You can have liopsuction to take off unwanted fat.
You can dye your hair, have surgical implants or wear a wig.
You can have breasts enlarged or reduced to almost any size youwant.
However, you can’t fix stupid. Stupid is forever.
Congrats, Jenrry Mejia. You just pissed away millions of dollars because of natural born stupidity.
I thought Steve Howe was permanently suspended…several times 🙁
Yeah, permanent suspension doesn’t necessarily mean lifetime ban.
He was suspended so many times, but it was always for substance abuse. Addiction is very different situation than violating the PEDs policy.
So… try to find a place in the Japan and promise them he won’t do drugs any more? What is the NPB’s drug policy?
Technically, I think he is under team control even if on the inactive list. I don’t think he could go to Japan w/o MLB/Mets approval. They do have testing in Japan
1 year for first offense. Lifetime ban for second offense. Not that they’d want him anyway.
Japan 0bserves MLB suspensions. He can’t play there.
Can he use insanity as a defense? Otherwise, I have no words to explain this
Somebody slipped it into my Gatorade.
The Twinkie Defense.
$20 says this guy gets signed by the independent Long Island Ducks before too long. He would be a great draw for them and a ton of free publicity/media.
Mr. Mejia, I have to admit, I underestimated you. I didn’t think that after the year-long suspension you could be any more stupid. I am man enough to admit that I was wrong.
lol
Let’s face it, it was eventually going to happen. Sadly, nobody will actually learn anything from this.
And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for these meddling drug tests.
Wow, how dumb can you get?
Just goes to show you how addictive these drugs are. Knowing he was risking hundreds of millions over his career he still could not stay away from the juice. A career ruined. What other work can he do where he will earn more than $50,000 annually? Threw away $2.5 million guaranteed just for showing up this year. Only provision to earn it Stay Off Drugs! Forfeited his entire professional career. For what? So sad.
Went to the well three times too many.
He let his team down, his friends down, his fans down, and most of all himself and his family. He gave up a career that a lot would die to have in his place. Not only did he waste it for himself but for others to. He could have had a great career but decided to take a road that doesn’t end well, as we have seen.
the dumbest m-effer, in the history of MLB, There are guys that get caught once…and there have been many that get caught twice…..but if you get caught 3 times, with the understanding you’ll be banned for life, for a 3rd offense, you should be smacked in the face with a pack of raw chicken parts.
what is he?.. a shmuck on wheels, for cryin out loud?
If they ever let him back then Pete Rose should be.
Everything being related to Pete Rose’s situation – is tiring. Very tiring.
This guy could’ve been something if he could’ve gotten himself together, he had the stuff but was to much of a showboat and now we know he just lacks common sense. He gives the sport a bad name with this, I mean three times in a year? Come on man, use your head, unless he is addicted to something and hasn’t admitted he needs help yet I see no explanation other then “I am a complete idiot” as his opening defense in an appeal. Why throw away the career you longed for, for so long? There has to be something behind this and if not I will be absolutely stunned and blown away at the stupidity of Mejia. What a waste