Pirates infielder/outfielder Pablo Reyes has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for the banned substance Boldenone, Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday. Reyes was designated for assignment by the Pirates and sent outright to Triple-A Indianapolis last month.
Reyes, 26, has seen action with the Pirates in each of the past two seasons but struggled in 2019 after an intriguing debut in 2018. Overall, he’s mustered only a .229/.295/.368 slash in 220 plate appearances as a big leaguer. That said, Reyes also carries a solid .281/.341/.471 line through 589 plate appearances in his Triple-A career. Today’s PED revelation and last year’s league-wide offensive explosion in Triple-A will cause many to question the legitimacy of that production, however. Reyes missed about a month of the 2019 season due to an ankle injury.
Having been outrighted off the roster, Reyes was already facing an uphill battle to make it back to the big leagues. Now, with a half-season suspension for a performance-enhancing substance, his road to a second tour of duty in the Majors is all the longer.
What a loser. Pa-BLOW sounds about right.
Why? Because he used a substance that’s arbitrarily on some list some stuffy antiquated yes men in the league office basement made up? A substance that may well not be “banned” after the new CBA?
Ok
arbitrarily ?
Its a ped to build mass, not to remedy an injury…he knew exactly what he was doing when he put it in his body.
actually its used to better retain nitrogen which lets you keep mass as oppose to build mass.
@monty All I ever see you do on this site is stir the pot with your “wokeness.”
I’m sorry, I thought you’d have noticed my unyielding 80s movie quotes as well.
The aforementioned quotes are indeed sublime.
I thought that I was the only one who used old movie quotes here….. Well raise my rent!
And the Seinfeld quotes!
@amcferron lmao if you think Monty is too woke I really would not recommend venturing much further onto this newfangled World Wide Web thing all the kids are so keen on these days.
steviepants – I’m in total agreement with ya
Boldenone is a steroid meant for horses. It was not “arbitrarily on some list.”
Have you or any member of your family ever been diagnosed schizophrenic or mentally incompetent?
Well, Tom House admitted to he and his teammates taking Horse Steroids in the early 1970s when he was with the Braves. So it Baseball, and no sport is more based on tradition.
I remember Tom House also. He played at a time of the “greenie epidemic” and weed was flowing, also drunks were abundant in clubhouses (Billy Martin exhibit A).
Can read multiple memoirs of players from the time House played.. Even a tad before and find drugs/alcohol in unlimited quantities were supplied by teams even (Booze, greenies).
Comparing various users at that time to this 1 is totally different.. Especially as 1 described in another topic all the “wokeness” infesting various parts of the country.
Maybe he is half horse like a minotaur? Or a Motaur?
centaur, a minotaur is half bull
@dynamite drop …
It will still be banned. What the hell is wrong with you? Do you actually condone cheating?
Bold move.
See ya. Time to find different work
“This guy here is dead! We’ll cross him off then.”
Hmm all those Astros players cheating gets nothing. Sounds fair
you know full well why this is different and much more clear-cut
This isn’t clear-cut though. PED’s don’t hit a baseball. It’s a skill game.
The Astros case is FAR more clear-cut than any PED “bust”.
the buzzer or trash can doesn’t either.
the advantage to knowing what pitch is coming and where is far superior to the advantage you might get from being able to lift weights longer.
for example if we put you personally up to bat and tell you a fastball is coming low and away you may actually be able to foul it off. but if we give you bolderone and you have no idea what pitch is coming you wont come close to even touching the ball. so whats a more clear cut advantage?
Apples and oranges. Period.
Cheating is cheating. And Astros had worst cheating scheme in history, period.
Oh please
Deck the all
They players got nothing because the only way to get any player to talk was to grant them immunity.
Instead of trying to improve his performance with PEDs he should have just created a sign stealing system. Not only would his stats improve but there’s no suspensions when you’re caught.
that would explain 2018
Starling Marte protege?
Francis Martes was suspended earlier this week for the same PED, boldenone, as Pablo Reyes.
Starling Marte was suspended for nandrolone in 2017.
A better question is, what are they thinking in the Dominican Republic?
They are thinking that they can easily get the stuff and they hope that they can mask it.
Yeah, and that’s dumb. My point is that they aren’t thinking. Detection methods have gotten way better, so they have to be extremely careful of what they ingest if not deliberately shooting up. Maybe it’s something in that country that’s tainted, like meat.
3 people is a really small sample size. It’s almost certainly a coincidence.
Sample size is much greater than 3. Of the last 11 players popped for PEDs, 9 have been from the Dominican Republic. And I didn’t go back further than 2017. That’s a disproportionate amount of players from the DR to be a coincidence.
In this case, percentage is more significant than n (sample size)
There have been more than 11 caught for PED’s since 2017.
On one site I found 11,and on another 15. You may be right. My point remains: the majority have been from the Dominican Republic
Is Robinson (cheater) Cano from the DR?
Cano played for DR in the World Baseball Classic. All signs point to yes.
What’s with the Pirates and Boldenone?
What’s the deal with homework?
what’s the deal with airline food?
It’s their way of gaining an edge on the competition. It’s like that team everyone’s talking about who steal’s signs with cutting edge technology.
Yea, they should have to vacate their 5th place finish…it’s only fair
Well done IndiansJoe. Well done.
Wish they would cheat more, cuz they’re never going to compete with cheapskate calling the shots
pretty bad when you are taking peds and there is no performance from them…
There seems to be a certain race of people continually getting busted for PEDs. This is 100% MLB’s fault for not onboarding people from not-America in how to deal with banned substances while living overseas. Another Manfred-fail.
You’re right again, jerk!
Players & some teams apparently need better chemists. I’ve said for 10-15 years that Mlb drug policy is a total joke! They honestly should let players take anything they want at this point. Why have *** next to Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Clemens, Arod, etc? There were easily dozens or hundreds of others on the juice but they couldn’t match the stats those guys put up!
Incentives are there for the players and frankly owners who each want to make money. Risk=reward. Some teams and players just have better masking agents or immunity.
You’re right!!!
it has nothing to do with chemistry. its baseball, so what can you actually take to achieve real results? you dont need cardio so nobody will bother with any epo or sarm. so basically you can put on weight or shave weight and both require alot of work. these drugs arent magic. you dont take steroids and magically gain 50 lbs of muscle or shed 30 lbs of fat. you take them then work out twice as hard as you could before and after about 5-7 cycles you actually see results to your body. and of coarse none of that actually makes you better at hitting a baseball.
Yeah, I guess “Don’t stick a needle with random substances into your arm” is just too hard for people to comprehend…….. I can see how that’s Manfred’s fault…….
I know! Asians are getting screwed
Didn’t help him get any better..
If anyone believes PEDs are limited to fringe MLB players they may also still believe in Bigfoot.
1000% agree!
Then why do they take them ?
cause she’ll like it too
Maybe it’s time to start banning guys for a full season for the first offense and then issuing lifetime bans after that? Clearly, the current penalties are an insufficient deterrent.
I agree with your recommendation but also what’s insufficient are the number of tests per year. I also think there are ways players are tipped that tests are coming. With drugs that act so fast and flush out of the system so quickly, it’s very loose. The testing has to happen constantly, without notice, without informants… I guarantee there are upwards of 100 players doing PED’s and we are seeing a half dozen or so getting caught. They are doing it because 1) money and 2) low risk. Relatively speaking, few are getting caught.
I think a system like the NFL’s testing policy would work, but I’m not sure the union would ever go for it. Random drug tests summoned by letter in the player’s locker before or after a game and they need to submit for testing right there on the spot if at home, or within 24 hours if on the road.
Everyone gets randomly tested once in the first half of the season, and then again in the second half. Players on playoff teams are randomly tested during each round. I know that’s a lot of testing, but it effectively weeds out PED use entirely if a positive test comes with an automatic full-season suspension for the first offense and a lifetime ban for a second offense.
If you really want to send a message, anyone caught using PEDs during the playoffs is automatically banned for life. I know most of my suggested testing policy is extreme and highly unlikely to ever happen, but at a minimum there needs to be an element of true randomness to the testing process and much stiffer penalties for testing positive. The only way to achieve a game free of PED use is to start banning people for life, no exceptions, no reinstatement. I believe everoyne deserves a second chance, but if you blow that second chance, you have no business in baseball.
I guess this shines a different light on current events. Atleast if you cheat, win!!! Otherwise it’s just embarrassing
This is by far the most heinous offense by a Pittsburgh Pirates player in recent memory!!!
Aside from playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates?
Somebody has to mention the Chris Archer trade when the Pirates are involved in a Article.
No. No they don’t.
Glasnow and Meadows, there… Sorry, Pitt
Hey at least we’ll still have a team in a decade. May not be much, but it will still be here!
When they decide to move, I’ll be happy to help them load the trucks
80 days for PEDS……..which is good for baseball……
but if you cheat….you get a Free Pass !….which is bad for baseball !
But you also get a free frogurt! That’s good
there goes his chance for the HOF !
The Pirates were counting on his .220 average and 2 home runs to make a run at the pennant. Now, all bets are off.
Imagine using a PED and still only hitting 2 HR. Imagine if he wasn’t using them
If he weren’t using PEDs, he probably doesn’t get those 220 PAs. Sometimes players have to cheat to reach the big leagues.
Is that from a John Lennon song?
Poor Pirate fans. I hope they have WS in their near figure. They’ve suffered too long.
As long as the Cubs have to wait another 105 years, it’s ok
Pirates aren’t at the length of Red Sox or cubs yet.
This might well be the second biggest story of the Pirate off season.
One of the advantages of taking androgens from which these athletes benefit is decreased recovery time.
I never expected this many comments for some random dude.
Surprise! Happy birthday!
Nature punishes filthy pirate naughtiness with scurvy. MLB does it with suspensions.
This story was paid for by a generous grant from the Houston Astros Baseball Club®
Strip him of his title!
There goes the season… dammit
Serious question here – why does it seem like the majority of players who get busted for PED’s are Latin-born?
If his contract was worth $249m more, he’d be doing commentary and dating Lizzo
Because in most latin countries you can buy PED’s at the local Circle K.
Where strange things are afoot?
Where are all the players commenting on this?
Blackball this kid. He is a cheater.
That’s unfortunate. The guy was ok in his short stint at the end of 2018. He completely fell off the map in 2019 and now probably has zero chance of contributing to the big team
Fortune had nothing to do with his decision to cheat.
Im sorry counselor……i refuse to answer on the grounds it may implement me in another suit.
I’m starting to believe that every Dominican that’s ever worn a major league uniform was or is on PEDs. It’s an absolute joke. Majority of their star players have either tested positive or been linked to PEDs. I’m not trying to be an ahole either Sosa. Arod, manny (3 times), papi, tejeda, pujols, Cano, Cruz, big sexy (3 times), Ervin Santana, marte, montero, heredia, mota (2 times),Perez (2 times) José guillen, volquez, melky Cabrera, peralta, bastardo, Mejia (3 times), almonte, mondesi, paulino, polanco, Wellington Castillo, Francis Martes 2 times, montas, Pineda, Jorge Sosa, pablo ozuna, noberto, colome, and this clown ^. It’s a joke. Not trying to offend anyone but wtf? Minor leaguers are even worse!