{"id":514814,"date":"2026-01-11T08:11:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T08:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514814\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T08:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T08:11:29","slug":"former-phillie-max-kepler-suspended-80-games-by-mlb-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514814\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Phillie Max Kepler suspended 80 games by MLB \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Free-agent outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended 80 games for violating Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler, 32, tested positive for Epitrenbolone, a performance-enhancing substance. Under the program, the suspension will take effect immediately as the regular season begins.<\/p>\n<p>Major League Baseball did not specify a reinstatement timetable beyond the standard suspension length. He will be ineligible to participate in the 2026 postseason.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler is currently a free agent after spending the 2025 season with the Phillies on a one-year deal. In his lone season in Philadelphia, the 6-foot-4 outfielder hit .216 with 18 home runs, drove in 52 runs and posted a .691 OPS.<\/p>\n<p>In the National League Division Series against the Dodgers, Kepler collected a pair of extra-base hits and registered a .750 OPS in 15 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>Before joining the Phillies, Kepler spent the first 10 seasons of his career with the Twins, establishing himself as an everyday corner outfielder.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler had already been considered unlikely to return to Philadelphia this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free-agent outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended 80 games for violating Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-514814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115875458983309321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514814","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=514814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}