Doubling Down: Jurickson Profar Attracts a Second PED Suspension, and Johan Rojas (Possible) 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 house runs (24), wRC+ (139) and WAR (4.3), making his first All-Star workforce, 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 cope with the Braves. 4 video games into his tenure together with his new workforce, nonetheless, 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 workforce 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 the whole 2026 season.

Profar wasn’t the one participant reported to be going through a PED suspension on Tuesday, and even the one NL East outfielder who had run afoul of the sport’s drug coverage. In line 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’ is just not 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 nicely. He’s beginning in middle discipline and batting seventh in Philadelphia’s exhibition recreation on Wednesday in opposition to Group Canada.

It’s uncommon that information of such suspensions involves mild earlier than they change into official, however in these circumstances, the timing seems to be associated to the World Baseball Basic, as each gamers have been slated to take part however at the moment are ineligible. Profar, who was born in Curaçao, a constituent island nation below the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was scheduled to play for the Netherlands workforce, as he did in 2017 and ’23. In reality, he was a late scratch from the lineup for Tuesday’s exhibition in opposition to the Orioles. Rojas was initially slated to play for the Dominican Republic, however he reportedly dropped out of the match final week, and is now 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 under — 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’ll price him half of what he was set to make this season. His full wage has not but been reported, however it isn’t rather 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 because of a lingering quad pressure. In line 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 lot of this yr’s $15 million wage. Final yr’s suspension, which price 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 for the reason that begin of the 2025 season. Like Rojas, the 2 different gamers suspended have been members of final yr’s Phillies workforce:

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 workforce must signal him earlier than he can serve his suspension, a state of affairs that little doubt 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 house runs and 1.3 WAR in 80 video games, a stable displaying however down from his .280/.380/.459 with the Padres in 2024. By the point he returned, the workforce’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 record with proper shoulder irritation the identical day as Profar’s suspension was introduced. With second baseman Ozzie Albies, middle fielder Michael Harris II, and varied 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 under .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 means of discomfort in September, not eager to miss any extra time. Whereas he didn’t face any bodily restrictions when he got here to camp, new supervisor Walt Weiss instructed him he deliberate to make use of him because the workforce’s main designated hitter, which made good 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 discipline), 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.

Based mostly 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 harm division, with Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep each lately present process arthroscopic surgical procedure to take away free our bodies of their elbows. No timetable has been introduced for both, however the former is already on the 60-day injured record and the latter is anticipated to be positioned there. Moreover, AJ Smith-Shawver continues 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 harm histories of ace Chris Sale, Strider, and López, you may sense how shortly issues might collapse. In reality, Dan Szymborski confirmed that if each workforce’s prime 5 starters have been to lose half of its projected innings, the Braves would fare worse than every 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 Yr Drake Baldwin. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim is out till someday in Could because of 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 discipline, with Yastrzemski moreover in a position to 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 already know, he’s not a platoon man. On the similar time, we obtained a Gold Glove-caliber defender in Murphy behind the plate. So, there’s some good freedom there.”

Profar’s absence might 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 house runs, a 111 wRC+, and 0.4 WAR. For as modest as these numbers have been, the final two marks have 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, Crimson 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 programs 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 might additionally dip into the pool of remaining free brokers, with RosterResource’s Jason Martinez mentioning Andrew McCutchen, Jesse Winker, and Tommy Pham as potential suits. An alternative choice might be to attend and see how different groups’ roster choices shake out, after which add from the group of gamers who change into accessible. It’s value 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 workforce’s 40-man roster: 5 days earlier than Opening Day (so March 21), Could 1, and June 1. Anthopoulos ought to finally be capable 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 will not occur instantly. Even with Profar off the books, Atlanta’s payroll is about $2 million above the primary Aggressive Steadiness 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 reduce him free and eat that cash as soon as his suspension ends. MLB.com beat reporter Mark Bowman instructed that Profar could have burned his bridge within the Braves clubhouse:

Will probably be fascinating 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 struggle 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 discipline, with Marsh amongst these sharing time with rookie Justin Crawford in middle, 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 cut 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 delivery 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 obtained PEDs from the Biogenesis Clinic, taints that end result. The slugger could nicely 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.

Other than 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 have been publicly introduced. In two different circumstances that come to thoughts, arbitrators diminished normal 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 medication 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 in a position to persuade an arbitrator that the substance he took (hydrochlorothiazide, an over-the-counter diuretic), which was equipped to him by a detailed 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.