Toronto Blue Jays first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello has been suspended 80 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. I repeat, dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. Thank god for copy/paste.
Blue Jays 1B Chris Colabello suspended 80 games without pay after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
— MLB (@MLB) April 22, 2016
Jays’ Colabello caught using dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, the same drug used by Phillies reliever Daniel Stumpf, caught a week ago.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) April 22, 2016
Stunner in Toronto. Chris Colabello suspended for 80 games, for an old-school East German doping agent (dehydrochlormethyltestosterone).
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) April 22, 2016
While Colabello will be eligible to return to the Blue Jays in July, it’s worth nothing that should the team make the postseason this year (as they did last year), Colabello will not be eligible to be on the roster:
Lost in all this, if Colabello DOES come back, he is no longer eligible for postseason play thanks to a rule change from a couple years ago.
— Joshua (@JoshuaHowsam) April 22, 2016
There was news of a Blue Jays closed-door team meeting earlier on Friday, and it turns out that meeting was Colabello’s doing, to explain the situation to his teammates:
Colabello suspended 80 games for PED. He called the team meeting and was the only one who spoke. — John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) April 22, 2016
Colabello released a statement in which he sounded shocked that he tested positive for a banned substance:
Statement from Chris Colabello: pic.twitter.com/9UWTr7YfLD
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) April 22, 2016
The 32-year-old had been considered a feel-good story with a breakout season in 2015, following seven seasons (2005-2011) the Independent League. He put together a terrific .321/.367/.520 slash line, with 15 homers in 360 plate appearances for a Toronto team that went to the ALCS in 2015.
However, Colabello was off to a brutal start in 2016, with just two hits (both singles) and nine strikeouts in 29 at-bats. As Colabello said in his statement, he found out from MLB that he tested positive for PEDs over a month ago, so perhaps that knowledge factored into his struggles at the plate.
