Seattle Mariners prospect Eric Filia suspended 50 games

Seattle Mariners prospect Eric Filia will be suspended for the first 50 games of the 2018 season after testing positive for a substance of abuse.

After being one of the top players in the Arizona Fall League, Seattle Mariners minor league outfielder Eric Filia won’t be on the field until late June next year. Instead, he will serve a 50-game suspension without pay at the beginning of the 2018 season after testing positive for a substance of abuse.

Sources say the substance of abuse is marijuana. It’s the second positive test for Filia. He was expected to start the year in Double-A and hoped to move quickly through the minors after having great success in his first two professional seasons. Now he’ll have to hone his batting skills off the field for the first couple months.

Filia previously tested positive in 2016, when he played for the Everett Aquasox. I remember watching him play with the Aquasox that year. The first thing I noticed was the way he set up at the plate. He was very deliberate, easily taking longer to get set in the batter’s box than the other players in the short-season Northwest League.

As he stepped to the plate he placed one foot in the batter’s box, then the next foot, then did a knee bend with the bat held horizontally in front of him as he looked down at the ground in front of him. Next came what is now known as the “Filia Shimmy,” a move that involves the simultaneous wiggle of the hips and shoulders. All this time the young umpire behind the plate patiently held his hand in the air for a time.

When Filia finally established himself in the box, the left-handed hitter used a wide-open stance that had his front foot nearly out of the box on the first base side. As the pitch came in, he brought the foot back square and stepped toward the pitcher. More often than not, he took the pitch. He finished the season with a .450 on-base percentage. When he swung the bat, he hit ropes, leading the league with a .362 batting average.

Filia helped the Aquasox make it all the way to the league finals, where they lost to the Eugene Emeralds. Because of a scheduling conflict, the Aquasox played Game 2 of the championship series at Safeco Field of the Seattle Mariners, rather than Everett Memorial Stadium. I attended that game with my sister and 10-year-old niece. After the Aquasox’ victory, my niece hopped the fence to get on the field so she could have her picture taken with Filia, both of them showing off happy smiles. He seemed like a great guy, someone who was easy to root for.

His numbers were impressive: .362/.450/.496, with 43 runs, 46 RBI, and 10 steals in 68 games. Just based on the stats, it looked like the Seattle Mariners had a top prospect. There was a caveat, though. Filia had that great season in low-A as a 23-year-old. That’s ancient for a player at that level. The average low-A player is just under 21 years old. At 23, Filia was older than the vast majority of the players in the league. He would need to play well and move quickly just to become a prospect.

His Second Professional Season

Filia’s second professional season was as impressive as his first. He hit .326/.407/.434 with the High-A Modesto Nuts and helped the team win their division. Then they cruised through the postseason with six straight victories to win the league championship. In those six postseason games, Filia hit .333/.400/.704, with seven runs scored, three home runs and five RBI.

He followed that up with a terrific performance in the Arizona Fall League. He continued to show a good eye at the plate while also leading the league in batting average (.408/.483/.605). His performance and personality earned him the Dernell Stenson sportsmanship award, and his team once again made it to the league finals. Although not known for his defense, Filia made two great catches in right field in the championship game.

If you include his stint in the AFL, Filia has a .344/.428/.468 batting line in 219 professional games. He’s walked 46 more times than he’s struck out, which shows he can control the strike zone. He hasn’t hit for much home run power, but his 51 doubles in 219 games translate to roughly 38 doubles in a 162-game season. Every team he’s been on has been successful.

And yet he’ll be 26 years old in July, hasn’t made it to Double-A yet and will miss the first 50 games of the upcoming season with a drug suspension. He’s done nothing but hit when he’s been on the field, but off-field issues have plagued him once again. It’s a significant setback for a minor league player who is just starting a family.

A Cloudy Future 

Now he’s on the sidelines again because of a second positive test, reportedly for marijuana use. It doesn’t matter to baseball executives that marijuana is legal for recreational use in seven states, including the states in which he lived and worked last season (Washington and California).

This suspension comes at a time when it’s easy to argue that laws prohibiting marijuana are outdated and the majority of people in this country believe it should be legalized. Many believe it should never have been classified as a Schedule 1 drug in the first place. Schedule 1 drugs are considered to have no medical benefit and a high probability of abuse and addiction. Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin and LSD. Marijuana just doesn’t seem to belong in that neighborhood.

Ultimately, though, a rule is a rule, and Filia broke it. Now he’ll pay the price. Despite his success, he was still only on the fringes of prospect-dom, ranking 21^st in the Mariners organization according to MLB Pipeline. If the Seattle Mariners thought he was one of their better prospects, they would have found a spot for him on their 40-man roster. Had they done so, he wouldn’t be facing this suspension because players on the 40-man roster aren’t subjected to marijuana testing.

Plenty of Seattle Mariner fans are down on Filia after this second positive test. Some didn’t believe in him as a prospect before this suspension and others think he’s blown his chance now. One person tweeted: “The correct response would be: ‘Today, the Mariners announced they have released OF Eric Filia.’”

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I think that’s going too far. Let Eric Filia serve his suspension and get back on the field. If he continues to hit the way he has throughout his baseball career, he can be an asset. Using marijuana shouldn’t derail a player’s career. When he gets back on the field, my niece and I will still be rooting for him.