Well unless you’re living under a rock, by now you’ve heard that Jenrry Mejia is permanently suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids use a third time. The universal take is that he was incredibly stupid. At first, that was my take as well. 

However, there is something in me that began to question this premise. The one question I kept coming back to was why would he continue to use steroids while he was on suspension?  There was nothing he could gain from it. He wasn’t eligible to pitch until the 101st game of the 2016 season. It just doesn’t make sense for him to get busted for using steroids half a year before he was even allowed to pitch. 

To gather an understanding of what happened, let’s first start with the banned substances Mejia was taking and the correlating suspensions:

1. April 2015: Stanozol
2. July 2015: Stanozol and Boldenone
3. February 2016: Boldenone

Looking over this list, there are two things that jump right out at me. The first is he tested positive for a banned substance during a suspension. The next is that each time he tested positive, he tested positive for a banned substance he had tested positive for in an earlier test. 

What is interesting about Stanozol is that with one injection, the presence of Stanozol in your system can be identified for several months. Therefore, it is at least possible that Mejia tested positive for Stanozol in April and July for just one injection.  What’s problematic for Mejia is he also tested positive for Boldenone in July. As such, there were two banned substances present in his system. 

Now, Boldenone can be detected in your system for a whopping 16 – 18 months after its been injected into your body. Again, it is possible that Mejia tested positive twice for one dose. Whether or not you choose to believe this is what happened is up to you. However, scientifically, it is plausible Mejia is getting suspended a second time for the first (and only?) Boldenone dose he took. 

For his part, Mejia has stated, “It is not what they say. I am sure that I did not use anything.”  He also states that, “I am going to appeal. Lose or win, I have great faith. I have to clear my name. I will take this case to the ultimate consequences.”  

It should be noted that Mejia never appealed his first suspension despite claiming he had no idea how Stanzonol got in his system. There were no appeals or statements after the second suspension. It seems now with his baseball life on the line, he’s not going to go down without a fight. 

Unfortunately for Mejia, he is unable to appeal this third suspension. If he is going to have if overturned, he will have to go the Tom Brady route and sue Major League Baseball. The question is whether or not he has a good case. 

In judging that, we are at a disadvantage. It’s possible that Stanozol and Boldenone could remain detectable in a person’s system over a long period of time. What we don’t know is the levels detected in Mejia’s body. If these levels significantly decreased, it’s possible Mejia got nailed twice for the same dose. That’s inherently unfair. In that respect, remember Mejia twice tested positive for Stanozol in a three month span. However, Stanozol was not found in this latest test.

Stanozol itself is interesting here. This year there was an inordinate amount of Stanozol usage. As a result, Commissioner Rob Manfred determined that the issue needed to be investigated. 

Looking over the Stanozol suspensions each player was from Latin America. Over the course of baseball’s steroid testing, players from Latin America have been suspended more than players from anywhere else. The Dominican Republic, where Mejia is from, has more steroid suspensions than any other country. It’s clearly an issue. 

For what it’s worth, Latino Sports published an article examining Mejia’s second steroid suspension. In the article, it was alleged Mejia tested positive the first time because of an injection he received while he was having asthma problems. It was also alleged Mejia could’ve avoided the second suspension altogether by naming the individual who gave him the steroids. The article alleges this person was working with other baseball players as well. For his part, Mejia was quoted as saying he had no dealings with that person. 

While I’m skeptical about this Latino Sports article, I will admit it fits the narrative of MLB conducting an investigation into the increase in Stanozol usage. 

At this point, I don’t know what to believe anymore. On the one hand, I cannot fathom how anyone can continue to take a banned substance knowing if he did his career was over. It’s inane to take something again without first seeing if you could compete without it. 

And yet, Mejia did test positive three times. All we have to try to make sense of everything is guesswork and rumors. It’s not exactly how you build a strong case. 

While I can rack my brain to try to figure out how this possibly happened, I keep coming back to my initial reaction. Maybe Mejia is just that stupid.