Major League Baseball announced on Friday that Phillies minor league left-hander Elniery Garcia has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for the banned substance Boldenone. Garcia’s suspension is of particular note given the fact that he is on the Phillies’ 40-man roster. He’ll now be moved to the restricted list for the next three months or so, thus reducing Philadelphia’s 40-man roster count to 38 players.
Garcia, 22, spent the 2016 season with the Phillies’ Class-A Advanced affiliate in Clearwater and is widely considered to be one of the organization’s most promising arms. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked him seventh among all Phillies prospects, while ESPN’s Keith Law pegged him ninth (subscription required/highly recommended) and Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com placed him 18th. Longehagen notes that Garcia made significant strides from Opening Day 2016 to season’s end, improving not only his velocity but his command of his secondary offerings. Law called him the system’s “most pleasant surprise,” and all three scouting reports linked above make mention of his confidence and competitive demeanor on the mound.
Today’s suspension will undoubtedly lead to some questions surrounding the velocity gains he made over the life of the 2016 season, though he obviously made it through the entire ’16 campaign without testing positive for a banned substance.
Garcia presumably wouldn’t have been considered for a promotion to the Majors in the near-term, as he’s yet to throw a pitch above the aforementioned High-A level, so the move doesn’t thin out the team’s immediate pitching depth all that much. But, it’s feasible that a club that is currently light on left-handed pitching could’ve given him a look at some point this summer. Beyond that, the loss of roughly three months of development is a clear negative in the long run for both Garcia and the Phillies. At the very least, it seemed reasonable to expect that Garcia had a chance to reach Triple-A by season’s end, but the 80-game absence significantly slows his path to the Majors.
He likely just paved the way for one of Pat Venditti, Colton Murray or Cesar Ramos onto the 40 man roster
Teams should not be permitted to get roster relief with these violators. He should remain on the 40-man roster. Allowing them to put him on a reserve spot didn’t punish these teams for employing cheaters.
You act like the Phillies knew he was doping… every single team has had a PED suspension in the last few years… it’s not the teams fault. You punish the player, not the team.
If teams don’t get punished there’s not deterrent for them to take chances on these PED users, it is the teams fault and they should all get punished. If the player was an MLBer he would be ineligible for the playoffs, doesn’t that punish the team as well? So why not require them to continue carrying him on the 40 man roster without being able to hide him on a reserve roster and backfill him?
What is your rationale for punishing the teams? Ignoring that I’d say losing 80 games of development on a prospect is a punishment for the organization.
He’s already occupying a 40 man roster spot and wasn’t going to get called up anyway but now the team gets rewarded and can backfill that somebody else they could use.
until his suspension is up and they have to outright someone anyways
Yes, him.
Yes they should its a roster spot end of story .
I guess you believe that if one kid in a school class misbehaves, the whole class should be punished.
Punishing the whole team only penalizes players that play the game fairly.
A PED user that gets caught that is on the 40 man roster is already on that roster over other players. If he doesn’t get caught he’s still on that roster over other players; so why if he gets caught should somebody else get his spot? Teams that signed questionable characters and players that were suspected of being PED users should be punished for signing them, they should not get rewarded by allowing that player to get hidden on a reserve roster and backfilled with somebody else. Some steams might not mind as they can carry several players that much longer and keep them (and their replacements) free from waivers for 1/2 of a season.
I had to look up Bolderone. it appears this is an intentional PED use as compared to an “innocent” use of an OTC medication without checking. The penalties should be different. Permanent ban with forfeiture/reimbursement of the previous 12 months’ pay. Short term hurt for the players in general (as a minor leaguer, the MPA might not be involved) but a permanent ban threat with the a real financial loss would clean up all sports. Using an illegal drug for performance gain and anticipated financial benefits is fraud. Money earned this way means in most cases, they’re taking money out of a teammate’s pocket. Even at the MLB level where there are no “caps” there are still luxury tax and team budget implications. In order to stop the cheating, the penalties have to be significant enough to get the athlete to think twice. Is it really worth it? I wish it were treated as a criminal offense with jail implications. Fraud is fraud.
except there are times when people do accidentally take a PED without their knowledge. Go see Raul Mondesi Jr, he was to the point where they reduced his punishment.
The thing is, Mondesi tested positive for Clenbuterol, a sympathomimetic amine, used for a variety of breathing conditions ranging from asthma to bronchus. Garica tested postive for Boldenone, a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid (an AAS), and It’s never been a prescription drug, unlike Clenbuterol, which has. It’s an anobolic steroid that has been used by the likes of Jenry Mejia and Abraham Almonte on purpose (aka Garcia did it on purpose, not as an accident, you can’t just take Boldenone on accident it is only present in one prescription “Equipoise” as again, an anobolic steroid for muscle growth for those who are unable to/cannot grow muscle.) Not as an “accident” in cold medication like Mondesi. This is basically two different isolated cases with no relation whatsoever. Ones a prescription steroid that happens to be on the MLB banned substances list, the other is a anabolic steroid that needs to be on MLBs banned substances list, due to the possibility for enhanced performance.
I should also note that the “Boldenone” refrenced in Equipoise, is Boldenone undecylenate, not straight up Boldnone (which is what Garcia tested postive for, if he tested for Boldnone-U it would have showed up.), which is a compound of the steroid and is used for veteriany medicine too (for weak horses mostly) on top of what I said.
Pretty much my point. Imagine being a teammate, he gets called up instead of you so his bid league clock starts and after hitting it big he signs a huge contract, in part because he got that one opportunity. it then turns out he used a PED. You get the idea. Cheating is cheating and fraud is fraud.
Didn’t another big Phillies prospect get a PED suspension? Franco or one of them?
Singletary was the marijuana guy before they dealt him to Houston and Gillies got busted in a weird drug fiasco.
SingletON