Jenrry Mejia, who spent five MLB seasons with the New York Mets, was issued a lifetime ban from the MLB this offseason for his third positive performance-enhancing drug test. The right-hander believes that there was foul play involved and plans to appeal the suspension.
Mejia told the New York Times earlier this month that the MLB conspired against him and orchestrated his final two failed drug tests. He claimed that the first one was an accident, but the next two were "inaccurate." After the second one, he said that MLB officials pressured him into supplying them with information about his doping connections, but when he didn't, that third test emerged.
As a result, Mejia, 26, is fighting to get back into the sport.
"I want to clear my name," he told the media on Friday.
"Mr. Mejia was told by league representatives that if he did not provide testimony on a particular player they wanted to investigate they would go out of their way to find him positive a third time," said Vincent White, Mejia's attorney. "My client believes he has no choice now but to fight."
The MLB continues to refute the claims put forth by Mejia and his representation, but the former reliever still retains the right to appeal his lifetime ban. Commissioner Rob Manfred would review the appeal, and Mejia would have an opportunity to return at the start of the 2018 season.
The organization said Mejia's comments, as well as those of his representatives, "continue a pattern of athletes hiring aggressive lawyers and making wild, unsupported allegations about the conduct of others in an effort to clear their names," which can be directly attributed to Alex Rodriguez's legal action against the league two years ago when he was banned for a full year after failing a drug test and refusing to accept a plea deal.
We'll probably never know the real story behind all of this, but it's clear that the league has the upper hand given the stigma placed on those who have been associated with performance-enhancing drugs. Not to mention that it's Mejia vs. baseball, and it's highly unlikely that he'll have enough of a credible case to unearth the league for its supposed "witch hunt" against him.
The players union has not supported or fought for him throughout this whole process, which is also not a good sign for the right-hander either.
