Doubling Down: Jurickson Profar Attracts a Second PED Suspension, and Johan Rojas (Probably) a First

In 2024, 11 years after he was the consensus no. 1 prospect within the recreation, Jurickson Profar lastly broke out, setting profession highs in residence runs (24), wRC+ (139) and WAR (4.3), making his first All-Star staff, and serving to the Padres to an NL Wild Card berth. He cashed in that winter; after by no means making greater than $7.75 million in a season, Profar signed a three-year, $42 million take care of the Braves. 4 video games into his tenure along with his new staff, nevertheless, he drew an 80-game suspension for violating the Joint Drug Settlement. Whereas he was productive upon returning and figured prominently within the plans of a staff anticipated to contend for the NL East title this season, on Tuesday, the 33-year-old outfielder drew a second PED suspension, this one for your entire 2026 season.

Profar wasn’t the one participant reported to be dealing with a PED suspension on Tuesday, and even the one NL East outfielder who had run afoul of the sport’s drug coverage. In keeping with a number of sources, the Phillies’ Johan Rojas has an 80-game suspension looming for a first-time offense. Whereas MLB formally introduced Profar’s suspension in a press launch despatched at 6:47 p.m. ET on Tuesday — over six hours after ESPN’s Jeff Passan first broke the information — Rojas’ will not be but official.

Each gamers are reportedly interesting their suspensions. An hour after Passan’s tweet, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation is submitting a grievance on Profar’s behalf. It’s not clear but on what grounds the union is difficult the suspension, however such a case can be heard by MLB’s impartial arbitrator, Martin F. Scheinman. Later that afternoon, The Athletic’s Charlotte Varnes and Matt Gelb reported that Rojas is interesting his suspension, as properly. He’s beginning in heart area and batting seventh in Philadelphia’s exhibition recreation on Wednesday towards Workforce Canada.

It’s uncommon that information of such suspensions involves mild earlier than they grow to be official, however in these circumstances, the timing seems to be associated to the World Baseball Basic, as each gamers had been slated to take part however are actually ineligible. Profar, who was born in Curaçao, a constituent island nation below the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was scheduled to play for the Netherlands staff, as he did in 2017 and ’23. In actual fact, he was a late scratch from the lineup for Tuesday’s exhibition towards the Orioles. Rojas was initially slated to play for the Dominican Republic, however he reportedly dropped out of the event final week, and is not listed on the roster.

Typically, such suspensions, and the specifics of what substances violated the coverage, aren’t introduced till after the appeals course of has performed out, and in some circumstances — detailed beneath — mitigating elements have diminished the size of the introduced suspensions. Nonetheless, if it’s a participant’s second (or third) violation, the enchantment course of doesn’t formally start till after the suspension is introduced. Right here’s how Rosenthal defined it:

The league mentioned Profar’s suspension will start on Friday. Penalties for first-time offenders below baseball’s Joint Drug Settlement are “stayed” till the enchantment is heard. Profar as a second-time offender is permitted to enchantment, however with out a keep. His enchantment will now be expedited, one supply mentioned.

As a result of it’s not official, we don’t know but what substance Rojas used that triggered the violation, however it’s going to value him half of what he was set to make this season. His full wage has not but been reported, but it surely isn’t way more than the league minimal. (Final yr, he made $773,500.) The suspension can even forestall him from taking part in within the postseason, one thing he was unable to do final yr attributable to a lingering quad pressure. In keeping with MLB, Profar was suspended for testing optimistic for “Exogenous Testosterone and its metabolites” — that’s, testosterone not produced by the physique. He’ll lose the whole thing of this yr’s $15 million wage. Final yr’s suspension, which value Profar half of his $12 million wage, was for utilizing human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone that’s used to advertise fertility in females and to enhance testosterone manufacturing in males, usually in connection to anabolic steroid utilization; notably, Manny Ramirez’s 2009 suspension was for utilizing hCG

The suspensions are the fourth and fifth because the begin of the 2025 season. Like Rojas, the 2 different gamers suspended had been members of final yr’s Phillies staff:

Kepler spent all of final season with the Phillies however struggled. He had but to signal one other free agent contract when his suspension was handed down in January. A staff must signal him earlier than he can serve his suspension, a state of affairs that little question complicates his effort to discover a new job. (Taking a wild guess, it in all probability gained’t be the Braves.) Moreover, Profar is the seventh participant to attract a PED suspension of a least a yr:

Upon returning to the Braves on July 2, Profar hit .245/.353/.434 (122 wRC+) with 14 residence runs and 1.3 WAR in 80 video games, a strong displaying however down from his .280/.380/.459 with the Padres in 2024. By the point he returned, the staff’s destiny as also-rans was already sealed. The Braves struggled out of the gate final yr with out the still-rehabbing Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider, after which with out each Profar and Reynaldo López, who made one five-inning look earlier than touchdown on the injured checklist with proper shoulder irritation the identical day as Profar’s suspension was introduced. With second baseman Ozzie Albies, heart fielder Michael Harris II, and numerous outfield fill-ins for Acuña and Profar all starting the season in prolonged slumps, the Braves misplaced 13 of their first 18 video games. Whereas they rallied to climb above .500 for precisely two days (Could 18–19 at 24-23), a 4-15 skid that started on Could 20 knocked them beneath .500 for good, even with the returns of Acuña and Strider.

When he reported to Atlanta’s spring coaching website in North Port, Florida in mid-February, Profar revealed that he had undergone surgical procedure to restore a sports activities hernia in November; he had performed by way of discomfort in September, not desirous to miss any extra time. Whereas he didn’t face any bodily restrictions when he got here to camp, new supervisor Walt Weiss informed him he deliberate to make use of him because the staff’s major designated hitter, which made excellent sense given his horrible defensive metrics and the emptiness created by Marcell Ozuna’s departure in free company. Not solely did Profar put up ugly metrics in 2025 (-8 FRV and -9 DRS in 701 innings in left area), however his -26 FRV and -28 DRS in 2,683 1/3 innings from 2023–25 each ranked among the many majors’ backside 4 amongst all outfielders, not far behind Nick Castellanos in about 1,200 fewer innings.

Primarily based on our Playoff Odds, the lack of Profar was sufficient to show the Braves from slight NL East favorites (90.6 projected wins with 42.7% odds of successful the division) into co-favorites (89.4 wins with 36.5% odds) alongside the Mets (89.5 wins, 37.2% division odds), with the Phillies (87.7 wins and 25.3% odds) not far behind. Atlanta’s rotation has already taken a few substantial hits within the damage division, with Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep each lately present process arthroscopic surgical procedure to take away unfastened our bodies of their elbows. No timetable has been introduced for both, however the former is already on the 60-day injured checklist and the latter is anticipated to be positioned there. Moreover, AJ Smith-Shawver remains to be rehabbing from Tommy John surgical procedure from final June, and Grant Holmes missed the ultimate two months of the season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament, although he opted for relaxation and rehab as an alternative of surgical procedure, and has already made two appearances this spring. Given the damage histories of ace Chris Sale, Strider, and López, you possibly can sense how rapidly issues may disintegrate. In actual fact, Dan Szymborski confirmed that if each staff’s high 5 starters had been to lose half of its projected innings, the Braves would fare worse than some other membership.

The lineup has additionally suffered notable losses. Backup catcher Sean Murphy is rehabbing from September surgical procedure to restore a torn hip labrum and is anticipated to return someday in Could; latest addition Jonah Heim will begin the season because the backup to reigning Rookie of the 12 months Drake Baldwin. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim is out till someday in Could attributable to surgical procedure to restore a torn tendon in his proper center finger; within the meantime, Mauricio Dubón would be the common shortstop.

With Profar as the first DH, the Braves figured to make use of a platoon of lefty-swinging Mike Yastrzemski and righty-swinging Eli White in left area, with Yastrzemski moreover capable of fill in for both Harris or Acuña on the different positions and Dubón anticipated to spend time within the outfield upon Kim’s return. With out Profar, the DH spot stays open to maintain Baldwin’s bat within the lineup when he’s not catching, one thing Weiss indicated in December that he’d love to do. “Drake hits proper and left [-handed pitchers],” the supervisor mentioned. “You understand, he’s not a platoon man. On the identical time, we obtained a Gold Glove-caliber defender in Murphy behind the plate. So, there’s some good freedom there.”

Profar’s absence may open up a roster spot for 30-year-old lefty Dominic Smith, who’s in camp on a non-roster invitation. Final yr in 63 video games with the Giants, Smith hit .284/.333/.417 with 5 residence runs, a 111 wRC+, and 0.4 WAR. For as modest as these numbers had been, the final two marks had been his highest in these classes since his red-hot pandemic-shortened 2020 season (166 wRC+, 1.4 WAR) with the Mets. From 2021–24 with the Mets, Nationals, Purple Sox, and Reds, he managed simply an 87 wRC+ and -1.1 WAR. Outfielder Ben Gamel, one other lefty-swinging NRI, spent final yr within the minor league techniques of the Angels and Tigers, slashing .281/.402/.539; he hit .240/.360/.323 (102 wRC+) in 114 plate appearances for the Padres, Astros, and Mets in 2023–24.

President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos may additionally dip into the pool of remaining free brokers, with RosterResource’s Jason Martinez mentioning Andrew McCutchen, Jesse Winker, and Tommy Pham as potential matches. An alternative choice may very well be to attend and see how different groups’ roster choices shake out, after which add from the group of gamers who grow to be out there. It’s price remembering that free brokers on minor league offers (akin to Gamel and Smith) have three standardized opt-out dates in the event that they’re not added to a staff’s 40-man roster: 5 days earlier than Opening Day (so March 21), Could 1, and June 1. Anthopoulos ought to ultimately have the ability to reallocate the $15 million financial savings from Profar’s wage towards different makes use of, maybe taking up a participant with a considerable contract in a commerce or by way of waivers, however that won’t occur instantly. Even with Profar off the books, Atlanta’s payroll is about $2 million above the primary Aggressive Stability Tax threshold of $244 million, so any extra wage will carry a tax penalty.

Whereas Profar stays below contract with a $15 million wage for 2027, it wouldn’t be stunning if the Braves minimize him unfastened and eat that cash as soon as his suspension ends. MLB.com beat reporter Mark Bowman prompt that Profar might have burned his bridge within the Braves clubhouse:

Will probably be attention-grabbing to listen to what the Braves gamers say about Profar tomorrow. Lots of them bit their tongue final yr. I’m anticipating far completely different responses this time. https://t.co/CgEXD10IT9

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 4, 2026

As for Rojas, he confronted a battle even to make the Phillies roster after batting .224/.280/.289 (58 wRC+) in 71 video games totaling 172 plate appearances final yr. They’re anticipated to platoon lefty Brandon Marsh and righty Otto Kemp in left area, with Marsh amongst these sharing time with rookie Justin Crawford in heart, and Adolis García the common in proper. Outfielders Pedro León and Bryan De La Cruz (briefly a Courageous early final yr) and superutilityman Dylan Moore are amongst these battling for a similar roster spot Rojas might need crammed.

As for the opportunity of appeals altering these outcomes, traditionally arbitrators have intervened to scale back PED suspensions a handful of instances. Probably the most well-known one occurred in 2012, when freshly topped NL MVP Ryan Braun was suspended 50 video games. He challenged the suspension, and in February 2012, arbitrator Shyam Das overturned the suspension on the grounds that the testing protocol had not been adhered to due to the delay between the gathering of the urine pattern (on a Saturday) and the transport to the testing facility (on the next Monday). Braun’s subsequent victory lap, which included smearing the pattern collector after which a yr later turning up as having acquired PEDs from the Biogenesis Clinic, taints that final result. The slugger might properly have gotten away with taking the fast-acting testosterone lozenges that assist in evading detection and that Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch was famend for distributing.

Aside from the complete dismissal of Braun’s first suspension, the 100-game suspension of Rockies catcher Eliezer Alfonso in Could 2012 — his second, following a 50-gamer in 2008 — was diminished to the 48 video games he had already served; the league and the union agreed that the identical procedural grounds that led to the Braun dismissal, relating to the well timed assortment of the pattern, utilized there, too. In 2014, arbitrator Fredric Horowitz diminished Alex Rodriguez’s Biogenesis-related 211-game suspension to 162 video games plus the postseason to align with a precedent within the size of drug-related suspensions.

These reductions all occurred after the preliminary suspensions had been publicly introduced. In two different circumstances that come to thoughts, arbitrators diminished customary penalties due to mitigating circumstances. In 2016, Royals infielder Adalberto Mondesi was suspended for 50 video games as an alternative of the usual 80 for a primary offense after he introduced proof that the substance he ingested (Clenbuterol, a bronchiodilator, not an anabolic steroid) got here from an over-the-counter chilly drugs bought within the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Twins pitcher Michael Pineda was suspended for 60 video games as an alternative of 80 as a result of he was capable of persuade an arbitrator that the substance he took (hydrochlorothiazide, an over-the-counter diuretic), which was provided to him by an in depth acquaintance, was taken in an effort to handle his weight as an alternative of getting used as a masking agent.

The present Joint Drug Settlement, which was a part of the 2022 Collective Bargaining Settlement, solely permits for partial reductions of penalties, to not more than 30 video games for a primary suspension and not more than 60 for a second. That mentioned, I wouldn’t anticipated both Profar or Rojas to catch a break.