When Jose Bautista apparently stated that he has been tested 16 times in the past two seasons under Major League Baseball’s drug prevention and treatment program, it raised some eyebrows and, in some cases, posed the question of doubt.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reports that there was miscommunication and that the Toronto Blue Jays slugger has not been tested that much.
“A source who would know said Jose Bautista has NOT been steroid tested 16 times the last two years. The source: ‘Not even in the ballpark,'” Passan tweeted on Tuesday.
According to Dionisio Soldevilla of the Dominican Republic newspaper Hoy, during a Jan. 22 dinner hosted by the president of Bautista’s native Dominican Republic, Bautista was asked by retired pitcher Pedro Martinez how many times he has been tested under MLB’s program.
Bautista replied that he had been tested three times in 2009, nine times during his breakout, 54 home run 2010 season and seven times during the 2011 campaign.
Soldevilla was a guest Jan. 26 on the Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590 The Fan and was asked if he thought it was possible Bautista had exaggerated the number of times he’d been tested the past two years.
“He’s a pretty smart guy,” Soldevilla told Blair. “He knows the difference between three and nine.”
Passan’s source states otherwise and says that Bautista has not had any extra tests.
“Source was unsure whether the reporter misheard, Bautista miscalculated or something else. Said Bautista’s tests were average amount,” Passan also tweeted. “Point being: For all those theorizing Bautista has gotten extra tests because of suspicion from MLB, that is not the case.”
–With files from Mike Cormack
