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San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. has tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and has been suspended 80 games, a punishment that ends his 2022 season, Major League Baseball announced Friday.
In a statement, the 23-year-old shortstop said he inadvertently treated ringworm with a drug that contained the banned substance Clostebol and that after initially appealing the decision, he decided to withdraw the appeal.
“I had to use the resources available to me to make sure that there were no banned substances in what I was taking. I failed to do so,” Tatis said in his statement. “I have no apology for my mistake and I would never do anything to cheat or disrespect the game I love.”
Tatis has yet to appear in a game this season due to a wrist injury he suffered in an offseason motorcycle accident. He will be ineligible to play for the Padres if they make the postseason. San Diego trails the Los Angeles Dodgers by 16 games in the National League West, but will hold the newly created third NL wild card spot if the season ends Friday.
“We were surprised and extremely disappointed to learn today that Fernando Tatis Jr. tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Prevention and Treatment Program and has subsequently received an 80-game suspension without pay,” the Padres said in a statement. “We fully support the program and hope that Fernando will learn from this experience.”
League policy dictates that clubs not be notified of a player’s positive test until the day that player is to be added to the restricted list, so the Padres did not know that Tatis had tested positive when they created the trade for the change of the franchise to acquire Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline.
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At the time, this deal seemed like a coup for a team struggling with its young superstar Tatis preparing to return from injury for the run. In hindsight, Soto and Josh Bell will replace much-needed production as the Padres try to make the long October stretch they and general manager AJ Preller have been searching for for most of the last decade.
Soto and Bell will now anchor a Padres lineup that still includes Manny Machado, a great heart of the order who looked poised to be dominant down the stretch, but hasn’t yet: San Diego is 3-5 since trading for Soto , including a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers last week.
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When Tatis was healthy in the big leagues, he was explosive. Last season, despite battling a shoulder injury down the stretch, he led the league with 42 home runs as a 22-year-old. He was an MVP candidate in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
But after battling a shoulder problem at the end of 2021, Tatis returned from the lockout with a new problem that his team had been unable to resolve while the players negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement: He had broken his wrist in an accident with motorcycle. His return was slower than some had hoped, but it seemed likely to arrive soon. He won’t be back until 2023.
This is a developing story that has been updated.
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