It looks like Major League Baseball has another cheater on its hands. This time, the player in question is receiving an 80-day suspension.
According to NBC Sports:
Major League Baseball just announced that free agent catcher Taylor Teagarden has received an 80-game suspension without pay as a result of his violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
This may not have been a big thing in a vacuum. Teagarden has played in only 17 major league games in the past two years, is a 32-year-old free agent and in all likelihood would not have appeared in a big league game again. But the circumstances which have led to this bit of news does make it notable. Those circumstances: he was named in the Al Jazeera report which also named Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman, Peyton Manning and other athletes last December.Howard and Zimmerman have sued over the report and have denied all wrongdoing.
To be clear, Teagarden was shown in an undercover video in the report talking openly about his PED usage and such was not the case for Howard, Zimmerman, Manning or other athletes named in the report. As such, this might just be a case of some low-hanging fruit being snagged by MLB. It is worth watching, however, to see if anything else comes of the Al Jazeera report.
Although not a huge catch when it comes to well-known sluggers, but it is good to know the system seems to be keeping some players in check…. for now.
staff