Matt Holliday Addresses PEDs, Jhonny Peralta

Cards outfielder Matt Holliday seldom minces his words.

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

There’s a great read from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday answered a few questions at the WWU 2014. Two topics are compelling.

One was Holliday’s continued stance being against PED use. Holliday is perceived as one of baseball’s more outspoken proponents of stiffer penalties for those caught using, but Holliday doesn’t feel he’s as outspoken as made out to be. From Goold:

"For me to be more outspoken or more against it, I don’t think is accurate. I think all players who are clean are against it. We all want a level playing field so that at the end of our careers we can say this is how I matched up against other guys who were doing it the right way. I don’t necessarily think that I have a more outspoken or stronger opinion about it. I think all players who are clean are very much against PEDs and trying to get them out of the game.…“How are we going to do that?” he continued. “Well, the only way that I know is to make the suspension harsher.”"

Naturally, the topic of the Cards signing Jhonny Peralta had to be a follow-up, right? Holliday’s response on the Peralta signing and if he felt Perlata needed to address his Biogenesis “dealings” with the other Cards players:

"“I think that’s in the past, you know. I think , gain, he took the suspension, served it, his teammates in Detroit welcomed him back. So I don’t think it’s necessarily something he has to address. If he wants to, then that’s his prerogative…”"

Something Holliday divulged is that the team contacted him prior to singing Peralta. It wasn’t to seek his approval, but as a courtesy.

Goold maintains a page on YouTube and there is a video of Holliday as well as a dozen other videos from WWU 2014.

Here’s the Holliday clip…