Report: MLB has stopped testing players for steroids
Due to the MLB lockout and the expiration of MLB’s Joint Drug Program, according to the Associated Press.
It is the first time in nearly 20 years that MLB players have not been tested for Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) since they enacted the Joint Drug Program in late 2002. However, suspensions with a positive test did not come until 2005.
MLB has stopped testing players for steroids/PEDS due to the lockout
Reportedly, MLB stopped testing players for steroids due to the MLB lockout, which was put in place at 12 a.m. (Eastern) on December 2. In the CBA (which expired one minute before the lockout), it says “the termination date and time of the program (Joint Drug Program) shall be 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021.” However, it hadn’t been officially announced by MLB and still hasn’t.
Why? It makes them look even worse than they have in recent months, which truly says something.
This comes on the heels of baseball legends Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa not getting into the Hall of Fame on their final ballot due to concerns over PED use in their career. Additionally, both Manny Ramírez and Alex Rodríguez were well short of induction. Both of them had numbers that are more than Hall of Fame-worthy but both were suspended twice for violating the Joint Drug Program.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, spoke to the AP on the report (which was reported anonymously since MLB hasn’t publicly addressed the issue) and he said that “[i]t should be a major concern to all those who value fair play.”
“If it’s just a simple matter of agreeing to it,” Tygart said in the article linked above, “you would have hoped they would have been able to get that figured out, so that when the game does restart, you don’t have questions hanging over individual players based on size, speed, batting percentage, home run numbers, whatever it may be, that people are going to call into question again.”
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Additionally, the AP obtained a copy of a “Work Stoppage Guide” for members of the MLBPA and on page 19, a heading read: “Will Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) testing be administered during a work stoppage?” The answer that followed? “Based on past precedent in the NFL and NHL, it is unlikely that MLB can administer JDA testing during a work stoppage,” the guide said.