On Tuesday Toronto Blue Jays 2012 first-round pick Marcus Stroman was suspended 50 games without pay after testing positive for a performance enhancing drug.
Blue Jays assistant general manager Tony LaCava met with reporters after the news broke to discuss the loss of one of the club’s top pitching prospects.
On his reaction to the news…
My natural reaction is disappointment. Obviously you never expect something like that to happen. That being said, it’s a stiff penalty for him to pay. He unknowingly took a product that was over the counter, had a stimulant in it and the burden is on the player, so he’s obviously going to pay the price. To his credit, he’s standing up to it. He acknowledges that it was his responsibility, he made a mistake, he ingested it and he’s accountable for that. The 50 games is the price he’s going to have to pay.
On the product Stroman tested postive for…
I don’t know the name of the product. My understanding is that it was picked up at a GNC, or a GNC type of store, not sure of the store either. The name of the stimulant is (Methylhexaneamine).
That I don’t know. (if he was taking it before)
On whether Stroman was going to major league camp next year…
He certainly was doing everything that we had hoped. We think he has a bright future; we haven’t really discussed major league camp next year. It’s really hard to say. We’d have to take a look at what we do this winter, what’s available to us, who we acquire and things of that type before going there.
On whether Stroman can attend minor league camp next spring…
My understanding is that he’ll be able to do minor league camp he just won’t be able to participate in games.
On the MLB drug education plan…
I know in spring training we have "Baseball 101s", as we call them, where we educate the players on a number of things and that’s one that we do. There are so many different things out there now, players just have to be careful of what they ingest and, in this case, Marcus made a mistake. He took something that obviously had a stimulant in it that’s banned by Major League Baseball.
On the details of the suspension…
The suspension starts tonight, so he’s going to miss tonight. That’s one game and the rest of the New Hampshire season, I’m not sure how many games that entails off the top of my head but it will be a handful this year that he’ll have served and it will start next year, as well.
On if there is a list of approved products that can be taken…
There’s a list of approved products … the governing body will stamp approvals. That’s the list we use.
Obviously, it was something that was not on the approved products list. It wasn’t an approved product I imagine. I’m not sure what it was, that’s why…
Is it possible Stroman wasn’t aware it was banned?
Conceivably. The education process begins immediately, but in his case obviously this product was not something that was approved and he took it. It’s unfortunate.
