By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | July 9, 2016, 12:03 am CT
Stanley playing with the Cardinals’ Quad Cities (A) affiliate in 2011. By Joel Dinda / CC Image
Former Cardinals catcher Cody Stanley, who was non-tendered by the club in December after a second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, is once again in hot water.
Major League Baseball announced on Friday that Stanley, currently a free agent, has been suspended 162 games for a third positive PED test, a development which could very well spell the end of the 27-year-old’s career.
After the news of his suspension was made public, Stanley issued a brief but bold statement.
“I will never apologize for something I didn’t do. We will not stop searching for why all of this has happened,” the statement, released by the players’ union, read in its entirety.
According to the commissioner’s office, Stanley tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, “an anabolic steroid used to increase speed and strength,” as ESPN described. Stanley made his MLB debut with the Cardinals last April but was suspended 80 games (his second career PED suspension) for the same banned substance in September.
“That’s very disappointing,” Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told reporters, including Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “[Stanley is] not under the Cardinal umbrella anymore but you’d like to think players who end up testing positive for something would do whatever possible not to let it happen again. The third time is telling.”
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