Indians reliever Emmanuel Clase has received an 80-game suspension, per a league announcement. He tested positive for banned PED boldenone.
Clase, acquired in the trade that sent Corey Kluber to the Rangers, had been rehabbing a teres major strain this spring. Precisely when the positive test was recorded isn’t known, though it certainly may have taken place prior to the shutdown of play. Clase would have had an opportunity to appeal the suspension before it was announced.
The Indians were disappointed to see Clase go down in camp. But it seemed he’d have a chance to accomplish much of his rehab work while the season was on pause. That’ll still be the case, but he’ll now be sidelined regardless when the 2020 campaign gets underway. The suspension will begin once the season gets underway, even if Clase is still rehabbing.
It obviously hasn’t been the smoothest start to Clase’s tenure with the Cleveland organization. The club pinned big hopes to the 22-year-old hurler, who was the chief asset brought back in a deal for one of the team’s best-known players.
Clase wasn’t a widely known player entering the 2019 season. But he zipped up the Texas farm system ladder and opened eyes with his MLB debut at just 21 years of age. Featuring a triple-digit heater, Clase turned in a 2.31 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, and a hefty 60.6% groundball rate over 23 1/3 innings.
There is quite a silver lining here for the Indians — and a big dent to Clase’s long-term earnings outlook. He had only accrued 59 days of service in 2019 and will not be able to add enough days in 2020 to reach a full season of MLB service (172 days). Though he could ultimately qualify for arbitration in 2023 as a Super Two player, his anticipated free agent clock will end up moving back a year.
What an idiot and loser
He’s not an idiot or a loser, you need to study up on the history of PED’s in the Dominican. Don’t blame someone for being a product of their environment, they are just trying to escape poverty and make a decent living.
By cheating?
If cheating was the only way you could pull yourself out of poverty, you probably would. Most people would, especially when nearly everyone around you is doing it.
It’s not about poverty. It’s about rehabbing an injury. Probably more common than we know. Surprised at the timing though. How’d they get to him? Lol
What? So only white players can take blame? What a joke. Stop making excuses.
Please don’t try to make this into a race thing, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with race.
No it doesn’t have anything to do with race. It’s about cheating, and cheating is cheating no matter the race.
He made it a race thing only bc the comment before was making an excuse bc hes Dominican therefore somehow we can assume he cheated bc he was poor and had no other choices. I agree dont make it a race thing. A cheater is a cheater is a cheater
An excuse? If you grew up in a country where a staggering 30.5% of the population is under the poverty level, and PED usage for young baseball players is practically mandatory, and scouts want only pitchers who are under 18 and throwing over 90MPH, you would use PED’s too. If you don’t sign a contract in the Dominican by the time you’re 18, then your career is over.. Even if you don’t want to take drugs, many of the agents and buscones (look it up) will force you. So don’t pass judgment on people if you haven’t walked in their shoes.
I guess don’t pass judgement would cover it since the other is impossible, lol. I agree with both to a point. If so many thousands of people walk around your impoverished neighborhood looking for drugs you’ll sell drugs, sex, baseball whatever it happens to be. I saw once where Miami was catching more and more nonnarcartic contraband. Freon was being smuggled in record amounts. Baseball should make the push to a truly world league, put teams in London, Paris, Italy, Belgium, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Mexico City. Some teams could move early and receive some breaks (Oakland/TB) to help establish the sport. I think it would be rough at the start but not as rough as many think (except Mexico City) these are big metropolitan areas with high wages and standards of living comparable to any US city. Change my mind, lol.
18 you say…quite sure there’s been plenty of player from the DR who were older than 18 when they signed.
Are you out of your mind. Condoning steroids because they’re from a impoverished country… I don’t know who’s the biggest idiot- him or you.
The biggest idiot is always the one who resorts to immature name-calling because they’ve got nothing of value to contribute. But you know what they say about those born with a silver spoon in their mouth, ignorance is bliss.
Just stop.
As he was trying to point out, Intelligence is not the issue here — it’s empathy. And by trying to frame that comment as “condoning steroids”, it’s quite clear who has the “biggest” lack of that precious commodity. It’s you. It’s you. It’s you.
I called it!!!
If you think he’s a loser you’ll think about a quarter of the mlb are losers because that’s how many used peds in one point in there life.
You’re being generous in saying just a quarter of them.
I don’t think the comment was about PED use in general… it was about using them in the era of testing an suspension…
Great start to his stint in Cleveland.
It’s funny how the player’s suspensions start when the season starts but cheaters like Cora and Hinch are based on the calendar meaning they could get off scott free!
It’s also funny how players that burst on the scene unexpectedly are caught ped. Boatloads more of those players too except they have a better anti-detection program.
Why blame those 2 managers when the players were the masterminds? Every organization needs an investigation
Ok mr shift leader at Del Taco.
oh wow. as if that trade wasn’t already bad
Not very clasey
who dafuq’s that?
The only good piece they got for Kluber. Nuff said
And now we know why he pitched well
No. One more thing needs to be said.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
If a season is played and is shortened, does the 80 game suspension get prorated?
I would doubt it
I doubt it, since it’s a number of games and not a season length. It will most likely roll over, just as the same as guys who get these kinds of suspensions late in seasons that carry over to the next.
No. 80 games are 80 games no matter what, so this could end up being a full year suspension, if not more, depending upon how many games they play in 2020. He might have a legit beef over compensation though, as if it were a full season he’d only forfeit 50% of his pay vs. what looks like a full season of pay here, albeit prorated salary.
Regardless, it makes an already light compensation package for Kluber look much worse for the Indians. Needless to say, there’s no way Cleveland or Texas knew about this failed test prior to the trade but perhaps Texas had some questions about his makeup, so they were willing to let him headline the deal? Pure speculation there.
He still has to sit out all 80 games, regardless.
Yeah normally I’d totally agree and thing 80 games is 80 games BUT of the $ involved they will probably have to modify the punishment in some way — maybe he still gets suspended for the full 80 games But the ‘without pay’ portion is pro-rated? Because for example if he was to serve this 80 game suspension in a regular season he’d lose roughly 50% of that seasons salaries. But if the season is only say 100 games this year — he wind up losing 80% of his total salary — and as stupid as it is to get caught for PEDs and I believe he should serve his suspension — it’s also not fair to make him lose more salary than he should. Of course one could also argue that he still has minor league options remaining so hypothetically TEX could just send him down to AAA and thus he’s lose his salary anyway — but that also seems unlikely based on what they gave up for him — unless he really is a different P without PEDs
He’s on the Indians, acquired for Corey Kluber. But yea you’re right. If the season is shortened, he should still receive a prorated portion of his 2020 salary(50%).
no, as per article on German
This was the word on German: “The way that the MLB/MLBPA agreement reads on domestic abuse suspensions, Domingo German will have to serve the remaining 63 games of his ban, but if there is no season or a shortened season, it does not carry over to 2021.” Not sure if the same applies to banned-substance suspensions.
Sorry – no, not prorated. Yes, could carry over (unlike German).
No.
Rangers win that deal. They get Kluber in 2021 and a QO while getting rid of trash. Although i think Delino DeShields has really good potential
I agree Rangers won the deal sadly but disagree about DeShields. His bat is too poor.
DeShields had really good potential in 2015. Not he’s nothing more than a defensive replacement. Dude put up awful stats in hitter friendly Texas.
Yeah I agree… at one point DeShields was a legit prospect with great upside… But at this point he’s nothing more than a backup OF — so Clase is pretty much the main/only thing the Rangers got back for Kluber and now he’s serving an 80 game PED suspension.
I loved deshields as a ranger, but cant hit. Great on bases and will make handful of exciting plays in field, just cant get bat on the ball enough.
Kluber does need to have a good season to get a QO though. He’ll be coming off two straight rough seasons if he doesn’t manage to bounce back to form this year.
Why would he get QO, dont rangers hold club option on him?
Kluber was having a good spring training when this Chinese crap hit the fan.
Wow that sucks big time for the Rangers if he’s always been aided by PEDs and his fastball isn’t actually the triple-digit weapon we all thought it was. Also how stupid can you be to get popped for roids right now when there isn’t even baseball being played!? Like that’s a total bonehead move! The ONLY possible ‘silver lining’ situation could be if this isn’t something he usually does but for whatever reason took something to train because the season’s on pause and he either didn’t realize what was in it – or was stupid enough to think there wouldn’t be testing because of the virus situation.
He was rehabbing. Sucks for Texas.
You mean sucks for Cleveland.
If it really was just as part of his ‘rehab’ process then (it’s still stupid but…) this could still work out ok for Texas in the end. If when his suspension is over he’s still throwing gas and has his electric stuff then it will be no different than a P getting injured for half a season upon being acquired. And given that Clase is still so young — he can afford to miss 80 games and still come back And provide sufficient value to make the trade not quite as lopsided.
He got popped a while back… just being announced now. Still stupid, though… and it sucks for Cleveland… Texas is laughing right now
I highly doubt he got popped before the Kluber trade. If he did, then the Cleveland GM should be fired immediately for making this deal. No way Cleveland would/should accept a RP facing an 80 game suspension as the headline piece for a deal trading away a former Cy Young worthy starting pitcher.
exactly. they would have had to have known. i dont think the league would have withheld the info as well.
Article says it was likely before the shutdown…. what the thinking or source on this is I’ve no idea. Certainly it had to be after the trade. Who knows?
Was he popped before trade? No.
Was he taking before trade? Most likely.
Did Texas know he was and would probably get popped? Probably.
“He got popped a while back.”
Nothing in that sentence said anything about testing positive before the Kluber trade.
Sucks for the Indians you mean
Whys it suck for texas, we conned Kluber out of them for him
Silly goose!
As if this trade wasn’t already bad enough…
karma for ownership for being cheap. Indians fans deserve better. maybe Indians and Pirates pool payrolls to get around the 25th percentile in the league?
Tough loss for CLE. Kids got nasty stuff. Imagine Clase and Karinchak to battle for late inning and the closer role once Hand walks in FA.
What do you mean he had nasty stuff? His nasty stuff came from a banned substance. There is no reason not to believe he was using in Texas.
He wont just stop throwing 97 now. His stuff is still good, he just might not be as constant as most pitchers use PEDs for recovery not strength.
Opponents were hitting him a lot, something surprising for someone who was throwing so much heat.
Indians should of dealt Kluber to Yankees. Rangers gave up absolutely nothing for an All Star player. I bet Rangers trade Kluber and get much more on the return
All their cheap ass’s had to do was wait to trade him. Let him get his value back. Made zero sense to trade when his value was at an all time low.
It makes no sense to think that Texas didn’t take the best offer on the market. The Indians traded Kluber when his value was low.
mlbnyyfan I wouldn’t be so quick to assume Kluber will be right back to pitching at an ace level in Texas. The trade market for him was that bad for a reason, I’m sure Cleveland took the best offer. If Kluber is still so great, why did no other team beat the Rangers weak offer? The real GM’s must know something the armchair GM’s online don’t.
Kluber was having a pretty good spring training so maybe the GM’s weren’t all that astute.
Do PEDs help pitchers throw harder? Yes, that’s one thing that performance enhancing drugs do.
And they recover more quickly.
Well, no surprises here.
Well so much for that rangers fan thinking they stole clase from the Padres lmao. Yet another piece preller trades away that will wind up not making it.
Jesse Hahn, Rj Alvarez, Derek Norris, Jordan Paroubeck, Dustin Peterson, Jace Peterson, Burch Smith, Johnny Barbato, Matt Wisler, Ronald Herrera, Alex Torress.
Eflin, Bauer, Ross(health), Mallex Smith have had their shares of difficulties.
they did steal him given they gave up nothing to get him and turned him into an ace
The guy Preller traded Clase for never played a game for the Padres and retired 14 months later. Meanwhile Texas flipped Clase into 2 years of Kluber, someone Preller has coveted for a while now. Texas absolutely fleeced San Diego in that trade.
Kluber hasn’t thrown a single pitch in anger for the Rangers. You can’t call it a fleecing until Kluber shows he is still at least a serviceable pitcher, and that is far from a sure thing. The guy is 34 coming off a serious injury.
Preller gave up a valuable trade commodity and received literally nothing in return. Anything that happens from here on out doesn’t change the fact that that was a fleecing.
Again, I reiterate, Kluber had been pitching well in Spring Training before the virus shutdown.
That’s old news how about bringing it up to date 2020, who cares about trades made by AJ three yrs ago
They’re already losing the kluber trade.
lmao good thing the Indians dumped some salary, right??
Usually sympathetic about loss of service time….but this is just not a smart thing to do. I don’t know how any major league player could not be aware of the rule and not understand the consequences. It’s possible the test dates back, but even so, what was he thinking?
Mike, people are aware of the speed limit on highways and they understand that if they are caught speeding they would have to pay a hefty fine and their insurance rates would go up and they would receive points on their driving record that could lead to a license suspension. Yet the majority of drivers regularly go over the speed limit. That’s because the slim chance of getting caught makes it worth the risk. Get it?
Your analogy is baffling those who read your comparison of speeding to taking PED’s,
do ‘indians’ represent tech workers from india?
By looking at my profile you will see
An unyielding joy inside of me
To know that we just robbed an innocent team
For a player whom is bound to turn into a meme
You’re a poet and you know it. But we don’t care if there’s no substance there.
Dang. That Kluber trade just went from “really terrible” to “steaming pile of flaming cow manure floating down a sewer river”.
I like the Indians and their Front Office, but their ownership is heinous. This trade was forced because Dolan needs money to pay back Sherman for his stake in the team. The only years where they spent money on payroll were the couple of years he was a minority owner. Now it’s back to cheapo baseball.
Dolan is truly, truly awful. Not Bob Nutting awful, but close.
What are those weird knobs on his forehead
You and your two burner accounts.
That doesn’t make any sense nor does it answer my question, you knave.
Well now who knows if his great production was related to PEDs or if he is truly that good. The bad luck vampire bites Cleveland again.
Imagine the Rangers have a bad season, and at the deadline we flip Kluber to a team like the Yankees for tons of good prospects…. good job Jon Daniels…. Imagine if the Rangers have a good season, and Kluber leads us past the WC game… good job Jon Daniels…
Only a complete moron gets busted for taking boldenone. What is this, 1999?
Man, this is not looking good for Cleveland. If you are an Indians fan, you have my sympathy. We’ve all seen our teams make a stupid trade and It’s kind of like watching a slowly unfolding train wreck.
The situation isn’t hopeless yet though. Maybe DeShields will figure it out and Clase can still be a good bullpen addition. Then there is always the mystery of Klubers future performance. It is far from a certainty that Kluber will return even as a serviceable starter, let alone an ace. He is now 34 and coming off a lot of down time and a serious injury. It looks bad but we still have to wait and see how the players involved perform going forward.
Seeing there is a pretty good chance Kluber doesnt pitch one inning for Texas I’d say Cleveland smashed that trade and doubt he gets a QO
This is what happens when you wait too long to sell on an asset. The Indians deserve it.
Not Classy.
Not a great joke I agree. But clearly something is going on in the DR. How do so many of these kids keep getting such poor advice/guidance. MLB needs to investigate
80 games could be the entire season.
Yet another Domini-can’t
Not funny. Seriously, what was the point of that comment?
Not funny, but true. It’s almost like there is a veterinary clinic in Santo Domingo selling horse tranquilizers and cow growth hormones doing amazing business for years now.
What an idiot. All that is left is go play for the Astros or Redsox, so his cheating is commonplace or go play for that trash organization the Mets. Never learn
Based on Luhnow & Hinch’s suspensions counting as served during the shortened (or even canceled season), shouldn’t the same hold true of players who get suspended during this time?
Damn…How you get suspended on your day off Smokey
Damn. And on your day off?
Don’t think anyone cares but I went running and now I’m going to bbq since you asked skippy
Boldenone: Illegally used in Horse Racing. Testosterone supplement only found on the black market.
…Big Red Flag don’t you think.
I mean your body tries to recover its natural testosterone when you stop using and while doing so your performance suffers, right? It seems that some of the players that have been caught, suspended and returned weren’t quite the same. Am I completely of base here? pun not intended
Testosterone levels in almost all men will return to normal within a year. There are a couple of drugs that doctors can give men which will stimulate the body to produce and replace all of the repressed hormone production within 1-3 months.
Most players who stop taking PED’s usually end up with strains, pulled muscles, knee problems, etc.