Major League Baseball suspended Toronto Blue Jays prospect Orelvis Martinez this weekend. Martinez violated the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy, resulting in an 80-game suspension.
ESPN’s MLB insider Jeff Passan reported the news Sunday morning.
“Martinez, 22, is Toronto’s top hitting prospect and made his big league debut Friday,” Passan wrote.
In a statement, the Blue Jays prospect claimed he was prescribed the drug that led to the positive test.
Martinez is the latest MLB player to face suspension for PED violations. The most high-profile example of suspensions recently was Fernando Tatis Jr. The San Diego Padres superstar missed the back half of the 2022 MLB season and part of the 2023 MLB season due to an 80-game suspension.
Martinez, the No. 2 Blue Jays prospect according to MLB.com, has a lot of hype in the Blue Jays organization. But that hype will be tempered after this suspension. You hope the second baseman doesn’t make the same mistake twice because if he does, then further punishment is on the way. And that would be bad news for everybody involved.
The Blue Jays are currently in last place in the American League East Division. They are 35-41 and 15.5 games behind first-place New York.
[Jeff Passan]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022