Phillies have a PED problem as they get hit with eighth (or ninth) suspension, tied for most in MLB history

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When you think of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, and if you’re of a certain age, you probably think of the Oakland A’s and the legacy of Mark McGwire, or maybe San Francisco and Barry Bonds’ BALCO scandal. If you’re a bit younger, maybe it’s Ryan Braun and the Brewers or the five Royals players suspended from 2007 to ′19.

When you think of PEDs in MLB, you certainly don’t think of the Philadelphia Phillies.

You should.

When an arbitrator on Monday upheld Johan Rojas’ 80-game suspension for testing positive for boldenone, a performance-enhancing substance, Rojas became the eighth Phillie to be suspended for PED use since 2009. He’s the ninth, if you include Max Kepler, who is a free agent but played with the Phillies last season and was suspended for 80 games in January after he tested positive for a PED.

Rojas is the third player with links to the Phillies to be suspended within a calendar year. Veteran closer José Alvarado was suspended for 80 games in May for exogenous testosterone.

Among the other Phillies suspended were pitchers Daniel Stumpf and Alec Asher (2016), pitcher Antonio Bastardo and catcher Carlos Ruiz (2013), shortstop Freddy Galvis (2012), and pitcher J.C. Romero (2009).

They’re setting records.

No other franchise has had as many suspensions since 2009.

No other franchise has ever had as many as three players connected with it suspended within the same calendar year.

The Phillies said Dave Dombrowski, the team’s president since the end of 2020, is not allowed to comment on suspensions in adherence with an MLB rule.

Manager Rob Thomson, who joined the team as its bench coach in 2018 and was promoted to manager in 2022, does not consider the positive tests to be representative of a bigger organizational issue.

“We do our homework. We talk to these guys about all these things. I know Major League Baseball does. I know the union does,” Thomson said. “They are three totally different situations. So no, I do not think it’s an issue.”

Still, bigger-picture questions remain:

All teams instruct their players to be careful, but are the Phillies not doing a good enough job? Are players reluctant to ask the team about substances when they’re not in-season? Is there an undercurrent with the Phillies that entices players to take chances that doesn’t exist on other teams?

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Though the Phillies’ front office didn’t answer these questions Tuesday, the team issued a statement Monday night:

“The Phillies fully support Major League Baseball’s Joint Prevention and Treatment Program and are disappointed to hear today’s news of Johan’s violation.”

They’ve had a lot of practice.

Phillies players know how this makes the team look.

“I don’t think we’re proud of it,” said shortstop Trea Turner. “I think the integrity is still there. We have players that do things the right way. Every once in a while, stuff’s going to happen like this.”

Perhaps. Mistakes happen. Alvarado, Rojas, and Kepler all tested positive in the offseason, when players might have less access to resources from their respective teams and their players association to help them identify substances with ingredients that might be tainted.

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But that’s a weak defense when all a player has to do is take a picture of a product’s label, then text it to his team or his union. It’s an easy system but one impossible to manage alone: There are 80 banned PEDs, 57 banned stimulants, and 57 banned masking agents, as well as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA).

“As baseball players, we don’t really know the science and 100% about what’s safe and what’s not,” Turner said. “That’s where we rely on training staff to point us in the right direction.”

In fact, if a player simply trusts his off-site trainer or buys some pills or powders off the shelf, the degree of irresponsibility for not vetting the substance is as criminally stupid as buying vials and syringes of horse juice in a dark back alley.

Furthermore, the players know the testing is coming. Just ask former Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who was a free agent in January when the testers came knocking at his Pittsburgh home.

If your name comes up, the testers find you. McCutchen said he once got tested in his hotel at Disney World.

After its disgraceful track record regarding PEDs in the late 1990s and early 2000s caught the attention of Congress, MLB got serious. It now takes both urine and blood at least once in the offseason, once in spring training, and once during the season. That’s the minimum. Testing happens far more often than that, Turner said.

“It’s at least twice in the offseason, and that’s been for a few years now,” said Turner, who is entering his 12th year in the majors. “Probably, all told, we take 10 to 15 a year. It’s quite a bit.”

There’s logic behind the positive tests of the three Phillies in question. Alvarado, who is portly, said he was using a weight-loss drug.

Rojas has the physique of an Olympic gymnast.

Kepler made more of an impression in Philly last season as a uniform model than he did as a light-hitting, $10 million free-agent bust.

It’s not as if stars like Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber or Zack Wheeler are popping dirty, but it’s not unimportant players, either.

Like Alvarado last season, Rojas will not be eligible for the postseason. Why might that matter?

Rojas was injured last postseason, but he likely would have pinch-run for leaden-footed Nick Castellanos in Game 2 of the NLDS when manager Rob Thomson had Bryson Stott bunt to move Castellanos from second base to third. The Dodgers threw out Castellanos. Rojas’ first two full seasons were poor, and he was on the bubble to make the big-league squad this spring, but he also was expected to be the No. 1 call-up option in case an outfielder was injured or ineffective, and he would have been a no-brainer as a bench player in the playoffs.

Now, the Phillies will look to Pedro Leon, a speedy 27-year-old waiver claim with seven games of big-league experience whom they just sent down to triple A. Rojas’ early absence might also create a spot for Dante Nori, a first-round pick in 2024 who rocketed from single A, to high A, to double A last year and starred in the Arizona Fall League, which earned him an invitation to big-league camp. He left camp to join the upstart Team Italy squad that made it to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic. Nori went 8-for-20 (.400) with two home runs and two stolen bases in six games.

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There’s no substitute for experience, though. That’s doubly true in the playoffs, where Rojas has played in 16 games. Last postseason, the Phillies sorely missed Alvarado coming out of the bullpen.

Whether or not the Phillies wind up missing Rojas, who can return for the regular season June 25, he has increased the stigma of the Phillies as a ballclub whose players cut corners.

Not all, of course.

“I take what the team gives me — mostly supplements and things approved by the team,” Turner said. “Sometimes you don’t know who other guys are getting their advice from. I think as a core, and as a group, I think we do things the right way, and I think we’ve got to make sure we keep learning and make sure these things don’t happen going forward.”