Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America Prospects Blog | Josh Sale, Marcus Stroman To Serve 50-Game Suspensions

Less than a week after the commissioner's office announced the penalty for Rays prospect Ryan Brett's failed drug test, the league handed out three more 50-game suspensions, two of them to prospects selected in the first round of recent drafts.

• Rays minor league left fielder Josh Sale, a teammate of Brett's with low Class A Bowling Green, tested positive for methamphetamine and an amphetamine, the same substances that triggered Brett's failed test. The 21-year-old Sale bashed six home runs in May, but he had cooled in the second half (.737 OPS), dragging his season line to .264/.391/.464 with 10 homers in 239 at-bats. The Rays selected him out of a Seattle high school with the 17th pick in the 2010 draft.

• The second of two Blue Jays first-round picks in June, righthander Marcus Stroman tested positive for the stimulant Methylhexaneamine. The former Duke standout and 22nd overall draft pick signed on July 3 and advanced to Double-A New Hampshire a month later after a brief stopover in the short-season Northwest League. In 15 pro relief appearances he had struck out 23, walked nine and allowed 16 hits (including one homer) in 19 1/3 innings.

• Royals minor league first baseman Mark Donato tested positive for an amphetamine. A 26th-round pick from Indian River (Fla.) JC in June, he batted .253/.305/.435 with three homers in 154 at-bats in the Rookie-level Arizona League.

If they so desired, could the Blue Jays take any course of action to void Stroman's contract based on the positive test considering the fact that it was signed so recently?

Posted by Josh | August 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm | Shortcut

Holy cow Matt!! Would appreciate your take on Stroman. Seems at first blush to be a total lack of discipline on Stroman's part and kind of surprising for someone who attended Duke.

Posted by John | August 28, 2012 at 7:55 pm | Shortcut

Oh come on John. I'm don't want to make this a Duke thing, but do you really think people who attended a given institution are (for whatever reason) morally superior less likely to cheat? What a joke.

People cheat to get ahead, and it happens at a pretty equal rate regardless of their chosen academic/athletic institution

Posted by NMS | August 31, 2012 at 3:24 am | Shortcut

Plus, let's not forget that Duke had a baseball coach fired in the mid-00s because of, among other reasons, rumors of team wide steroid abuse.

Posted by NMS | August 31, 2012 at 3:34 am | Shortcut

Different coach; Bill Hillier had nothing to do with Stroman’s recruitment or career. But your first point — that no school has moral superiority here when it comes to PEDs — is a fair one.

Posted by John Manuel | September 2, 2012 at 5:47 pm | Shortcut

"Different coach; Bill Hillier had nothing to do with Stroman’s recruitment or career. But your first point — that no school has moral superiority here when it comes to PEDs — is a fair one."

Didn't mean to imply that Hillier was involved with Stroman. Rather, the Hillier comment was just to prove that attending Duke doesn't make one above taking PEDs… as evidenced by the fact that Duke baseball players in the mid 00s were (supposedly) taking them. So,

Posted by NMS | September 4, 2012 at 3:40 am | Shortcut

Marcus is and always has been a winner—he will come back from this better than ever!

Posted by brad hirsch | January 13, 2013 at 11:18 am | Shortcut