In light of Jurickson Profar's PED suspension, where do the outfielder and the Braves go from here?

Yahoo

01-04-2025

In light of Jurickson Profar's PED suspension, where do the outfielder and the Braves go from here?
Major League Baseball has issued an 80-game suspension to Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar after he tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, the league announced Monday. The 32-year-old left fielder tested positive for Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a hormone typically involved in fertility and the production of testosterone.
It's crushing news for both Profar and the Braves, who commenced their 2025 season with four punchless losses to the San Diego Padres, Profar's former team.
Universally considered the sport's top prospect upon his debut with the Texas Rangers in 2012, Profar never lived up to the hype as a franchise-changing force. Instead, he settled into a career as a middling offensive player with useful defensive versatility. As he aged, however, he stopped moving around the diamond and became an every-day left fielder.
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Heading into 2024, the Curacaoan inked a one-year deal with the Padres that included just $1 million guaranteed. Profar then went on to deliver a career year, in which he smashed 24 home runs, started the All-Star Game in left field, won a Silver Slugger and finished the season as the seventh-most valuable outfielder in MLB by fWAR.
That eyebrow-raising season earned him a hefty raise this past winter from the Braves, who handed Profar a three-year deal worth $42 million. Then Atlanta's biggest offseason acquisition appeared in just four games before the lawman came calling. Profar will be suspended, without pay, until early June. He will also be forbidden from appearing in any playoff games, should the Braves reach the 2025 postseason.
Frankly, it's difficult, given the timing, not to connect the dots between Profar's PED suspension and his outlier 2024 season. He had always showcased strong swing decisions, but his batted-ball data took a massive leap last year. In fact, among qualified hitters, Profar had the single largest year-over-year jump in hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity, according to Statcast.
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Unfortunately, given the news of his positive test, that improvement now looks incredibly suspect.
Profar is the first MLB player to be suspended this season, though steroid use remains an issue beneath the surface both in the minor leagues and in the international amateur market. Only two big leaguers, Cincinnati's Noelvi Marte and Toronto's Orelvis Martinez, received PED suspensions in 2024, and the number has steadily declined since a formalized testing program was implemented in February 2004.
Still, whispers and accusations remain around the game — in clubhouses, in press boxes and in front offices. Part of that is unavoidable and expected, considering the dark pock that marked MLB in the late '90s and early 2000s. At the same time, there's a general sense that PED use is far from a dead issue, as evidenced by the handful of suspensions handed down each season.
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Profar, like the other confirmed users before him, will now face an extended period away from the game. Players with PED suspensions have, in this current era, often grown to outlive the blot that accompanies this type of transgression. Nelson Cruz, for instance, was suspended in his late 20s and became a beloved veteran of the game a decade later. He now works as a special advisor for MLB. And Fernando Tatis Jr., Profar's former teammate, has seen a general refurbishment of his reputation since his shocking suspension in the summer of 2022.
How Profar is thought of both within and beyond clubhouses going forward will depend on how he chooses to handle his punishment and whether he ever tests positive again.
For the Braves, this news represents yet another gut punch in a young season full of knockout blows. Atlanta's offense was missing in action during its season-opening 'mop' loss at Petco Park. The unit managed to score seven total runs across four games and begins this week's series against the Dodgers on a 22-inning scoreless streak.
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Atlanta entered the season with 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. on the injured list, still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered last season. The Venezuelan superstar is expected back around late May, which, combined with the loss of Profar, leaves the Braves quite undermanned in the grass in the meantime. Michael Harris II will continue to hold down center field, but Atlanta seems primed to roll with a Jarred Kelenic-Bryan De La Cruz platoon in right until Acuña returns.
As for the void left by Profar's suspension, the likeliest medium-term solution looks to be Alex Verdugo. The 28-year-old was the every-day left fielder for the AL pennant-winning Yankees last year, though he was heavily criticized for an underwhelming offensive season. He remains a stellar defender in left, but teams around MLB were clearly concerned enough about his bat that despite being one of the youngest offensive players available, Verdugo settled for a one-year, $1.5 million deal in March.
Fortunately for the gregarious Arizonan, he now has a clear path back to big-league playing time.