{"id":512826,"date":"2026-01-10T10:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T10:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/512826\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T10:23:13","slug":"max-kepler-receives-80-game-ped-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/512826\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Kepler Receives 80-Game PED Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball announced today that free agent outfielder Max Kepler<\/a> has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for Epitrenbolone, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.<\/p>\n

Kepler and MLB negotiated a settlement that allows him to serve the suspension even if he\u2019s not on an MLB roster to begin the season, reports Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of ESPN<\/a>. If he remains a free agent, last year\u2019s playing time with Philadelphia would count as a credit towards the suspension. He remains ineligible for the 2026 playoffs.<\/p>\n

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Kepler, 33 in February, just wrapped up his first season away from the Twins. After years in Minnesota, Kepler became a free agent after the 2024 campaign and signed a one-year, $10MM deal with the Phillies.<\/p>\n

His year in Philadelphia wasn\u2019t especially pleasant. He hit 18 home runs but slashed .216\/.300\/.391 for a wRC+ of 90. Along the way, he expressed some frustration<\/a> at being shielded from lefties, saying that he thought he had been signed to be an everyday player.<\/p>\n

Returning to free agency this winter, he wasn\u2019t going to have a huge amount of earning potential after that down year. On the other hand, the outfield market is fairly weak, apart from Kyle Tucker<\/a> and Cody Bellinger<\/a> being the top guys. Beyond those two, Kepler was one of the better options alongside Harrison Bader<\/a> and Mike Yastrzemski<\/a>, the latter of whom signed with Atlanta.<\/p>\n

This development obviously changes that. Kepler is now not only a 33-year-old coming off a down year, but also one who won\u2019t even be available for the first half of the season. Even if he latches on somewhere, serves his suspension and plays well in the second half, he wouldn\u2019t be eligible for the 2026 postseason.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obviously going to cut into Kepler\u2019s earning power. For clubs looking for outfield help, especially those who won\u2019t pay for guys like Tucker or Bellinger, it could perhaps increase their desire to push for someone like Bader, Miguel Andujar<\/a>, Austin Hays<\/a>, Mike Tauchman<\/a> or other available outfielders.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Kyle Ross, Brad Rempel, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball announced today that free agent outfielder Max Kepler has received an 80-game suspension after testing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1385,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-512826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-max-kepler","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115870315586677114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}