Astros righty Francis Martes has been suspended for 162 games after testing positive for the banned performance enhancing drug baldenone. It was his second such test; he had previously served an 80-game suspension during the 2019 season.
Martes was once considered a high-grade prospect and still owns a 40-man roster spot. He was working back from Tommy John surgery, which would’ve cost him all of last year even were it not for the suspension.
It has now been quite some time since Martes enjoyed success on the field. He reached the majors in 2017 but didn’t stick after throwing 54 1/3 innings of 5.80 ERA ball with 11.4 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9. Martes has only made it through 25 minor-league frames over the past two campaigns.
Martes’s future is now very much in doubt. At the same time, he only reached his 24th birthday in November. He’ll obviously need both to reevaluate his decisionmaking process and rediscovery his form on the mound if he’s to carve out a big league career.
Great news for Astros fans
The Astros are still making headlines. Stop cheating and give back the trophy. Cheating is not good for the game.
Not happening, so give it up.
PED guy gets 182, guy that knows every pitch that’s coming gets an MVP and a nine figure deal. Go figure!
Let him have his opinion.
said this way, it is terrible.
True and sad
fawkin peesa garbage
This was already his second punishment and he didn’t exactly win them the title lol, just point and laugh at this case.
Trophy with an asterisk but we gotta Black Sox Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Reddick and the rest of the hitters who participated. Tony Kemp actually said on paper that he was “offered the use of the system” but turned it down. So there were hitters on that team who weren’t using, but all the big names sure were. Ban them all for life. Make an example out of them.
@strike four if this happened to your favorite team. I guarantee you that you would not say ban all of the hitters that were using it. I’m not an astros fan but that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I do think the players deserved some sort of punishment and there should be an asterisk next to their title but what you are calling for is so stupid. You clearly are just a sour fan at this point. Probably a dodgers fan that got robbed twice of a title.
I hope you aren’t a braves fan because you would make us look really bad
If it was the Dodgers I would have a tough time with my passion.
The Astros are cheaters, 2017 will forever be tainted, they can carry the trophy but they’ve already had it taken away
It won’t forever be tainted. It’ll be forgotten in due time. People rarely talk about the 51 Giants anymore.
The ‘51 Giants didn’t win the WS
They still talk about the 1919 White Sox
you’re dead wrong
At least they were trying to win instead of lose like the black Sox.
I’m a brewers fan so I know I don’t have to worry about many titles. IF somehow the brewers win one though and a good portion of the team won it cheating I would want those players suspended at least a full season without pay. These players got off so light so what’s to stop the next team from doing it? Heck Altuve won a title and got millions on his next contract for his 2017 year. Rob dropped the ball on this punishment big time.
Is it really the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard? Really? haha sad
If you realized how many players in the majors, minors, college and high school are using PEDs you’d never worry about this cheating scandal.
oh, so you know exactly who did? where’s your proof?
@StrikeFour wait a minute. So you believe Tony Kemp because he said he didn’t do it, but you don’t believe Correa when he says that he himself cheated but Altuve, Reddick, and Kemp didn’t? Wtf am I missing here?
If you realized how many majors, minors, college, and high school teams were stealing signs you wouldn’t worry about the PED’s either 🙂
The Astros will see a few extra pitches up and in this season… How many broken fingers and hands remains to be seen.
@wah. Ballfour don’t worry about her. She’s a Yankers fan.
This will be bad for the game when Astro hitters will be targets. The blame should go to Manfred for not suspending the Astro players involved in this scandal.
Says the guy whose team hacked into another team’s player database.
I have been rethinking that whole thing. The Cardinals said that they thought Luhnow had stolen information when he left.
Kind of hard to doubt that now. Not excusing anything but maybe they had a point. Obviously Luhnow doesn’t have any issue with flagrantly violating the rules.
Man, that’s funny coming from a Cardinals fan. Did you put some money on Chris Correa’s prison commissary account lately?
Ought to be about 25 other Astro players suspended for a year also!!! Dam Cheaters
And this Astros group gets better and better lol… what a crappy organization lol
Yankees should give up their last 5 titles for openly cheating with teams loaded with cheating, roided up players..
Ditto Red Sox.
Holy whaaaaat?
The cheats keep getting cheatier…
LOW-CLAstros
I can’t say I’ve heard this one yet. This is clever, actually.
Well duh, of course the Astros’ pitchers had to get in on the cheating too…
Tyler Bauer burner detected
Who’s Tyler Bauer
They called him Tyler as a joke when he was making up whatever about pine tar.
Dumbass
The timing of this is impeccable..
Its really rather quite unfortunate
What an idiot
An Astro cheating? Say it ain’t so!!
Maybe he can be the designated drum beater?
That would be Designated Trash Can Beater.
Go Astros!
Go Trashtros!
DISASTROS
Asterisks
into shark infested water!
As a giants fan for 25 years I’ll just tell you… embrace it. Nobody can take it from you. F all the haters
Verlander’s next
Wouldn’t surprise anyone. We all know mid thirties resurgences are all most likely tainted. Jeter, Ricky Henderson, Ortiz, Randy Johnson. I love Verlander and would still root for him even if he tested positive because of all the great memories I have of him pitching. But, including him on the list of suspected users wouldn’t get any push back from me.
Oh please, your entire comment is just ridiculous. You seriously just accused Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Verlander and more of using PED’s when they clearly took many tests and never were caught using any sort of substance. Just go away and quit making these baseless claims about some of the greatest players in our generation. Just because someone plays well in his last few years doesn’t mean he’s on steroids. Baseball is a game of adjustments and these players clearly are talented enough to make the proper adjustments to have a successful career even into their later 30’s. Your comment is totally lacking facts and people like you just need to shut up
While most of the comment is outrageous, David Ortiz failed a PED test back in 2003.
Ummm, Ortiz was on them.
Just a few more facts that you seem content to omit here. Yes, supposedly Ortiz’s name was on the list of MLB players who tested positive for “something” in their survey testing in 2003 that led to the implementation of their actual PED policy the following year. But the testing that was done for that survey was overly broad and not very refined, and prone to producing false positives. It was intentionally set up that way to get to the 5% of all MLB players threshold that would allow the PED policy implementation. Further, in followup requests for specifics from the testing Ortiz was never able to be given a specific substance he supposedly tested positive for in that testing, nor did he EVER test positive for any banned substance in the 13 years he played after 2003.
I just asked Henderson for his response and he said, “Rickey strongly disagrees with the baseball commenter”
Ricky was a clean player…
one of best in MLB history.
Rickey don’t hang with Jose!
Rickey’s legs are 100% Rickey made.
That is a very dumb comment.
Complete BS.
Verlander is clean. Verlander has been a Yankee killer in many multiple playoffs Series with both the Tigers and Astros. .
Verlander
beat Roided up cheating Yankees players in multiple playoff series blocking Yankees from WS more than a handful of times.
Every player on that roster should have been given a minimum 20 game suspension, served at any point in this coming season. You can’t tolerate cheating, and PEDs are not worse than what they did.
The problem with player suspensions now is some of those players are on other teams and that punishes other clubs than just the Astros.
Since some of the cheaters have moved on the logical punishment that doesn’t hurt the other teams is to strip the title
Stripping the title from 2017 will not affect the players one bit. They have their rings, big money bonuses for winning and possibly bigger contracts.
The real reason for the players not receiving any punishment is that the CBA runs out at the end of 2021 and the owners don’t want to antagonize the MLBPA. There is way too much money at stake.
Wait why should that matter? Marwin Gonzales and Jake Marisnick had bangs in 19% and 23% of their at-bats (respectively), but they get off scott free because they hit free agency before Correa(16%)?
The whole team wasn’t on juice though.
I agree, take back the Championship and suspend every player on the roster (everyone is guilty by complicity and silence) during the last 3 years for at least 20 games on a rotational basis. And those weren’t anything close to apologies. But let’s move on!
You wanted apologies so they forced some out and you’re attacking them for it again? They should have just shut up in the first place then. Nothing is ever going to be enough for the MLBTR army anyway.
Complete BS.
Verlander is clean. Verlander has been a Yankee killer in many multiple playoffs Series with both the Tigers and Astros. .
Verlander
beat Roided up cheating Yankees players in multiple playoff series blocking Yankees from WS more than a handful of times.
Correct.
The lynchmob is out in full force.
Suspend Fiers too?
Lol And Canseco.
So you want an entire roster full of minor leaguers? And people wonder why MLB ratings are declining rapidly. Suspending the entire roster is pointless and would only hurt the game as a whole
He just said a potential suspension could be served at any point during the season. A couple players start out the season by completing their suspension, some players can do it around the All-Star break, some can do it in September. It wouldn’t be an entire roster of minor leaguers, but it would force the Astros to be creative to fill those temporary voids.
He just said a potential suspension could be served at any point during the season. A couple players start out the season by completing their suspension, some players can do it around the All-Star break, some can do it in September. It wouldn’t be an entire roster of minor leaguers, but it would force the Astros to be creative to fill those temporary voids.
Roided up Yankees were much worse…
And affected at least 5 World Series outcomes
Just the PR boost the Astros needed…
The Astros should trot Dusty Baker out to apologize for this.
Wow just throwing his career away…
Yeah… NOT throwing baseballs, just throwing his career away…
Classic!!! Lmao!!! It’s known to be a good fat cutting drug in the bodybuilding world, so the fact he’s fat shows he was shooting baby oil instead!
Most men shoot baby oil, it’s not a crime unless it’s in public or forced onto someone else.
“Most men shoot baby oil…”
What???
Martes following in the PED footsteps of his singular counterpart, Marte.
Lol
Lol,you can’t make this stuff up.
its not terribly surprising given its his 2nd punishment
Ken Rosenthal: I’m standing here with Carlos Correa who asked me to do this interview so he can clear the name of Frances Marte.
Carlos Correa: I know what we did is bad. We feel ashamed. But what people are saying about Frances Marte is not right. He’s not a cheater. He didn’t take PEDs. What had happened was that he felt so bad for Altuve being accused of cheating and Atluve’s horrendous tattoo, that he took lots of steroids to get busted so that all the negative media coverage would be about Marte instead.
Ken: But earlier you said Marte didn’t take any PEDs?
Correa: He didn’t…
Ken: …but you just said he did?
Correa: Correct, but not to enhance his performance – only to take the negative media attention off of Altuve.
Ken: …. so did Marte take PEDs or not?
Correa: Correct….
Ken: …………..
Correa: ………………..
LOL, good stuff right there
Lol!
Hahahaha awesome!
Correa: Also, Bellinger needs to get informed.
Correa is an even bigger liar than Altuve and Bregman are!
And can someone explain why Altuve’s wife “didn’t like that Correa pulled off Altuve’s jersey,” so henceforth, THAT is why he wasn’t allowed to rip off Altuve’s jersey (as well as the “embarrassing” tattoo). Nonsense and totally ridiculous.
LMAO! This is one of the funniest things I’ve read….today.
Maybe as part of the Astros’ punishment, they shouldn’t suspend him at all.
Whoever tries to suspend him, will be suspended.
I wonder if the PEDs were in the form of a cream that was meant to cover up an embarrassing tattoo?
gold!
I’m dead!
LOL!!!
Astros just need to go full heel. Embrace it.
This I can get behind! It would make me go from “geeze those guys” to “hell yeah! Hit the opposing catcher with an RKO after bat flipping the slowest trot home run in the history of the game”
The last catcher to get RKO’d was by an Astro hah
If the Astros catcher threw powder in the eyes of a batter, and pulled out a steel folding chair; they’d be my new favorite team, cheating aside. Hahaha!
The suspensions aren’t enough – the player should have to remain on the 40 man roster. And, if the player isn’t on the 40 man, there should be a service time penalty. Obviously, the teams are not policing this well enough.
GO ASTROS!!!!!!!!!!!
to the netherworld!
Repeating it doesn’t make it any more desirable. Of course, Astros’ fans would support them no matter how much evidence was presented.
Ofc it’s an Astro
Trashtros cheat on all levels. LMAO
“Trashtros” LOL, I love it.
Trashtros is really reaching. I like Astrisks better.
cmon dude. lay off the juice.
Nothing is going the right way for the Astros
Well…cheaters never prosper…well, they do in the case of the Astros, but they’re not SUPPOSED to.
Did Marte got also suspended last year
He may had a good advisor
Impeccable timing there, Francis.
Baldenone? Isn’t that the new baldness cure? 😉
That’s funny and clever, because it does sound like a baldness cure, but unfortunately, it’s a performance enhancing drug.
I think he used PEDs again because he wanted to be suspended… this is his way of saying that he refuses to pitch for the cheating Astros!!
Or the cheating Yankees lol!
Lmao. Cheating POS!
Next week Manfred will step in a clear him saying, “it’s good for baseball, we want to get to the truth of PED use within our organization”
I thought that he couldn’t possibly be worse than Selig, but I really failed on that one big time, didn’t I?
Another Astrosplayer cheating? Say it ain’t so Cuh
Cheating on top of cheating… never ends with those Astros, does it….
But according to their mgmt … none of it has anything to do with their success lol.
How did Martes factor into their success?
bravesfan: Coppy says “hello”…
It’s called boldenone, not baldenone
Clearly the take away from the article.
Should be all the players involved in the cheating scandal
Manfred is a hack, boycott everything Astros. Even minute maid OJ, hit them in the wallet, only thing fans can do aside from boo
Dusty says he was framed, and not to mention it again. Angry Barry was framed as well.
The Astros are cheating?!? What a shocker!
Martes is the reason why prospect top 100 lists don’t really matter. He was a top 20 guy in 2017 for “reasons” while never really showing any kind of dominant or even pretty good, consistent numbers.
I agree but only insofar as he didn’t get a chance to show off either because he was getting suspended for juice or blowing out his elbow. He did throw gas and have breaking pitches, and that would make him an attractive prospect.
Cheatee McCheat Facers!
Why are these players so stupid????
Doesn’t really help Crane’s argument about how great the guys in the Astros’ clubhouse are
WOW, The Asteriks just can not help themselves!!!!
Of course it’s an Astro being suspended for cheating. Who else would be dumb enough to get caught cheating right after their entire team got caught cheating?
He was already suspended for juice lol quit trying to make this out like all of them are roided out man, especially coming from a Yankee fan.
The Yankees are not the only team that has juicers, though.
How long ago was it when the last Yankee was caught doing PED’s? Over a decade? And an Astro? Today.
Oh so it’s okay because some time passed? Still robbed multiple titles. Funny you dismiss it whenever your team does it.
What an absolute dummy.
What a dummy.
Eighty games last year and 162 this year of taking PED’s. Something tells me his TJ surgery did go as planned.
Turdfred didn’t give this guy immunity??
Turdfred? Are you 12 or 65?
I prefer Manfredgina myself.
surpriiiise
Should’ve just worn a buzzer like the rest of the cheaters. Wouldn’t have gotten punished at all
The commissioner made his ruling.
Astros sure have been quiet this off season. Do they still have a team in Houston?
If a player is suspended for PED use, I don’t think time on the IL should eat up suspension time. It should be 162 games in which he is available to play. Especially for this guy. He obviously knows he can’t compete using only his God given talent.
Astros are worse than ped users??
Really??
Clemens stole a championship for I believe the Yankees among other things
And Bonds stole the All-time Home run record among way more other things & yet these guys still have a shot at the Hall of Fame???
No
I highly doubt Clemens was single-handedly responsible for the Yankees dynasty of the late-90s because of his PED use.
Ry.the.Stunner: You’re right, Clemens was NOT “single-handedly responsible”; here are some of his Yankees teammates that were also roid/PED/HGH users on FIVE World Series teams: Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Stanton, Jason Grimsley, Jim Leyritz, Randy Velarde, Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill, and David Justice…
Have any of you played professional baseball? It is extremely hard. Seeing the struggle a LOT of guys face, the unfairness of it all sometimes, I can understand why a guy would take a chance to give him juuust that little edge for some more power. You still have to see the ball and be able to hit the ball. And why not? when all you get is a small suspension. If it could lead to a potential big contract, I get it. PED use has gone down DRASTICALLY and once upon a time, it really wasn’t that big of a deal to juice up. Giambi looked so sick after he stopped juicing. Do you all remember that? Oh and…wasn’t he ALSO a Yankee? PED use is a different kind of cheating than what the Astros did. It was a monopoly of effort and it won them a championship.
Clemens reached the NYY in 1999 and he was 14-10 with an ERA of 4.60. In 2000 he was 13-8 with a 3.70 ERA. Hardly dominating numbers. After that he did not pitch with the NYY on a title team. The best case you can make for a PED year is 2001 (20-3, 3.51). We know he did PEDs in Houston, where he talked Pettite into doing them.
Clemens seemed to be breaking down gradually as he approached 2500 IP.
And then he became a horse again.
1996 would be my hunch on anything fishy with Clemens.
Hardly dominating numbers in 2000? For a 38 year old pitching in a strong hitter’s environment? C’mon now.
McNamee claimed he was providing Clemens from 1998-2001.
To think he didn’t have access to any shady trainers while pitching in Boston or Toronto seems like a stretch to me.
The incentive was there with 1996 being the first free agent season.
1997 and 1998 are very suspect as well.
But a clean start in NY for 1999 just felt right.
Lol good one.
Yankees are the worst cheaters
lying, cheating and stealing
5 WS Titles at least…
with teams full of cheating, roided up players.
Much worse than the Astros…
2nd time caught? I have no sympathy. Figure it out dude. MLB’s policy isn’t the problem. You are.
Astros and Manford are the worst. Astros are cheaters and Manford is a dunce.
Be careful with the “dunce”, it is Manfred not Manford.
Only thing worse than Astros fans are Yankee fans
Some Yankee fans are actually okay. No, I am not kidding or being biased, I am just telling the truth.
I can second this. As a Rays fan with season tickets on the away teams side. I can have decent conversations with opposing teams fans when the Yanks are in town. When Boston is in the Trop it’s a completely different story.
Any baseball fan is more than okay in my books!
Yankee fans tend to be easier to talk to than Red Sox fans, at least Western Canadian ones.
Both groups actually easier to talk to than Cardinals fans surprisingly.
Red Sox smugness has grown to Cardinal levels recently so I might have to reconsider.
And I’m maybe just envious that I chose the wrong bandwagon as a child.
All Astro Player should walk around with their WS Rings on and every time some dumb reporter/fan/rival players say anything they should raise their hand point to the ring and say kiss my a..
And before any dumb poster wants to call me a homer, I’m a White Sox fan. Watching everyone have a temper tantrum has made me root so hard for the Astros this season. It going to be awesome.
Then it’s going to be unfortunate for you having to see both of your teams lose.
I hope your accountant treats you like the Astros treated the Yankees and Dodgers, son. Then, after he’s caught, points to the wad of cash he stole from you and says Kiss my a..
Good fun, right?
cheaty cheaters cheat
Release him!!!
Hey, if only Martes had “just” stolen signs and worn a buzzer. He’d be fine!
Banned for life on the 3rd strike, right?
That is correct.
A once highly touted prospect
astros have been rumored to be bending rules in their pitching staff, but repeated juicing is way out.
“Lighten up, Francis!” Sgt Hulka- Stripes.
Give him trash can duties while he reflects on his dastardly deed. I’ll give him this much, he doesn’t let a prior suspension phase him. Great tenacity
Sounds more like a hair loss drug than a PED, lol.
Dang, I thought I was the only one who started laughing to themselves because of that.
Very sad,,,there are some bananas in Cotui, and good mangos, who cares, I am from Licey and Ny yankees
I wonder if there is any truth the rumor that Altuve lost a bet in 2019 and had to tattoo “Da Plane, Da Plane” on his chest? That would explain why he didn’t want his shirt ripped off.
Please, check Altuve actual tatoo…
ftw.usatoday.com/2020/02/jose-altuve-tattoo-carlos…
Wow. If there was any doubt that Correa was a liar, that photo is proof that he is.
Collarbone picture is from last July, if not earlier. You got punked lol
Wow. Please blow it up and rebuild with integrity. I know this happens to all organizations but this was not the time for the Astros. I hope everyone understands this is bad for Everyone-not just the Astros.
all these cheaters and Pete Rose still trying to fight for his rights and hall of fame rights for betting on his team
Baldenone, but which part of my body does it balden?
He’s trash lol.
Go astros! And take the Texans with you!
Clever plot by the Astros to create a diversion: have some no name test positive for steroids… Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain banging a trash can with a Louisville slugger
Suspend the whole team and play replacement players
What good would that do you? The Yankees are still going to be LOSERS.
Make the Astro players where a big “C” on the fronts of their jerseys. Then on opening day grab all the Astro gear and memorabilia and make a huge pile, then light it on fire. When the flames engulf the tainted stuff, wildly dance around the fire and chant the song of hate: cheaters! Cheaters! CHEATERS! Then bring a sacred animal to the ceremony of revenge and sacrifice it to the baseball gods, calling out to the Astros of the past to cleanse Minute Made Park of its stain. It’s the only way to get over it.
Is it hard to determine the nature of the responses on anything posted by the astericks,,,,,,,,this is gonna be the most bizarre season ever and I mean EVER.
Climate change and baseball,,,,,headline highlights for 2020
Once an Astro always a cheater
Needed to get those PEDs to bang that garbage can harder.
Complete BS.
Verlander is clean. Verlander has been a Yankee killer in many multiple playoffs Series with both the Tigers and Astros. .
Verlander
beat Roided up cheating Yankees players in multiple playoff series blocking Yankees from WS more than a handful of times.
Coming to any Astros story these days and reading the commentary is like going to a Trump Rally.
Bitter angry people who blame someone else for their own laziness and inability to have a life spewing bile and hatred and wishing for other people to be injured or killed.
I can feel Der Gropingfuhrer’s presence here. I can smell the spray on tan.
Not like he was helpful. He did the team a favor
I wonder if Manfred decided to use the Players Union as a shield just to make them look bad, there is a CBA coming up, be good for the owners to try and drive a wedge between fans and players.
I think the union should drop the Astros players. There has to be some kind of character clause. I also think it is ridiculous to assume that there would be litigation and whatnot. Most of the PED hits just end with the guys serving their suspensions and giving cursory apologies to their teams and fans.
What benefit would the cheating players get from dragging all that out. Plus, the union represents the players on all the other teams, ya know, the ones the Astros cheated against.
So you’re telling me that ALLLLLLL those players would just sit on their hands and not tell the reps to put the screws to these fools?
I think Manfred threw the union under the bus for political reasons. There are plenty of ways to get people to tell the truth without giving them immunity. Fiars was not the only one from the team who had moved on.
Threatening the players with lifetime bans would probably start some singing just as much as immunity.
Manfred needs to go. Astros owner needs to go. The Players Union should police their own a little.
Whether Houston gives up the trophy or not, their title is forever tainted. There should be player suspensions, too, but that obviously isn’t going to happen, either.
One more failed PED test and this guy will be Jenrry Mejia 2.0
One can only hope.
Dominican guy on steroids?!!! No way!!!
And the much deserved CURSE has begun!!!
Good for him! Never let major league baseball get in the way from being the best you, you can be! He’s gonna be ALRIGHT!
The Snickers Hole obviously isn’t working for the Astros!
TMZ reported that Martes is the Astros #1 overall prospect. LOL
This couldn’t have happened to a more deserving player.
Dont worry Francis, David ‘Big PEDi’ Ortiz got your back…