Minor Leaguer Gets A One-Way Ticket to Palookaville Over Failed Drug Test

Justin Mallett, a minor leaguer in the Reds organization, got hit Thursday with a 100-game suspension for his second violation of Major League Baseball’s drug policy.  The Reds promptly released him, which means that if another major league organization signs him, he first has to serve out the suspension.

This almost certainly means the end of Mallett’s professional career.  Mallett is 27 this year and pitched mostly at AA Carolina in the Southern League, which essentially means he is no longer much of a prospect.  I can’t see any major league organization signing a player like this who has to sit a 100 games before he can play again.

Mallet could play in an Independent A league, but the players in those leagues play for peanuts mainly for the hope to get picked up by a major league organization again.  Regardless of where Mallett goes or what he does, he has to sit out 100 games if he signs with another major league organization.

I think that players like Mallet are going to be the ones we see violating the drug policy multiple times.  Guys stuck in the minor leagues who don’t quite have the talent to play in the majors, and who are getting to the age where a major league organization won’t keep them around unless they are at least above-average AAA players.  Guys like this have nothing to lose, at least in terms of their baseball careers, and they may well see steroids as their only chance to play in the Show.

There are some consequences, nevertheless.  Mallet has spent the last six years of his life in professional baseball working for peanuts, and if anyone remembers him at all as a professional ballplayer, it will only be because he got caught cheating twice.  It's not necessarily something you want on your résumé as a 27 year old with little, if any, employment history outside of baseball and the country in a deep recession.

Mallet’s numbers weren’t that bad, so if he’d played it straight, he might still have had a chance of eventually playing in the majors.  Of course, there’s a very good chance he only played as well as he did because of the performance-enhancing drugs.