{"id":513609,"date":"2026-01-10T18:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T18:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/513609\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T18:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T18:10:17","slug":"former-minnesota-twin-max-kepler-banned-80-games-by-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/513609\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Minnesota Twin Max Kepler Banned 80 Games by MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a tough news day for one former Minnesota Twins player on Friday.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story from ESPN.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"KSOO-AM<\/p>\n

Free agent outfielder\u00a0Max Kepler<\/a>\u00a0was suspended 80 games Friday for violating Major League Baseball’s drug program.<\/p>\n

MLB announced Kepler tested positive for epitrenbolone, a performance-enhancing substance.<\/p>\n

Kepler, 33, spent the 2025 season as a platoon outfielder for the\u00a0Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>, batting .216\/.300\/.391 with 18 homers and 52 RBIs in 127 games.<\/p>\n

Before that, he spent his entire career with the\u00a0Minnesota Twins<\/a>, who originally signed him out of Germany, accumulating 20.6 Baseball-Reference wins above replacement, putting up a .747 OPS and hitting 161 home runs from 2016 to 2024.<\/p>\n

A representative for Kepler’s agency did not initially respond to a request for comment. Kepler’s suspension won’t begin until he is signed by a team.<\/p>\n

As part of MLB’s joint drug prevention and treatment program, Kepler will be automatically ineligible for the 2026 postseason.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to meet the Twins this month right here in Sioux Falls! The Twins Winter Caravan comes to Sioux Falls on Wednesday, January 21st! For full details, check out the full story here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0ESPN.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A Look Back at the Minnesota Vikings Last Playoff Win<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Bert Remien<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a tough news day for one former Minnesota Twins player on Friday. Here’s the story from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[4753,5,822,60,3190,4,7164,8094,185,317,148],"class_list":["post-513609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-articles","tag-baseball","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-newsletter","tag-overtime","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115872153202067801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513609","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=513609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}