{"id":514955,"date":"2026-01-11T10:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T10:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514955\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T10:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T10:15:28","slug":"mlb-announces-80-game-suspension-for-phillies-bust-due-to-positive-drug-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514955\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB announces 80-game suspension for Phillies bust due to positive drug test"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> have been trying to resolve their outfield woes over the last few offseasons, and one of their solutions was to bring in Max Kepler.<\/p>\n

Formerly with the Minnesota Twins<\/a>, Kepler wasn’t the best option for the Phillies, as he struggled mightily in the first half of 2025, before turning the corner a bit in the second half. Now a free agent, he’s seeking a new contract.<\/p>\n

However, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand<\/a>, Major League Baseball has announced an 80-game suspension for Kepler. The free agent and former Phillies bust will now miss 80 games in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Former Phillies outfielder suspended 80 games for positive drug test<\/p>\n

“MLB has announced that free agent OF Max Kepler has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for Epitrenbolone, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” Feinsand reports.<\/p>\n

This is a significant update on the former Phillies free agent bust, as he’s now going to have to miss 80 games in 2025, and as seen by Jose Alvarado’s absence, that long time away from a team is a big deal.<\/p>\n

And for Kepler, who’s still a free agent, he might not be able to sign with a team until much, much later now that he’s suspended for half the season.<\/p>\n

With the Philies this past season, Kepler hit .216 in 127 games. He had 19 home runs, 52 RBIs, and his .691 OPS and 88 OPS+ were well below expectations for the outfielder.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Phillies have 3 teams competing for J.T. Realmuto’s signature in free agency<\/a><\/p>\n

While he salvaged his season in 2025 with a decent second-half after he started platooning with Nick Castellanos, the production from Kepler in 2025 was a massive disappointment.<\/p>\n

Kepler will miss 80 games in 2026, and while he can return, being a free agent and suspended for 80 games is far from an ideal place to be for Kepler.<\/p>\n

The former Phillies free agent signing from a year ago is now suspended 80 games, and is the second player on the 2025 Phillies to receive such a lengthy suspension in the last calendar year.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies have been trying to resolve their outfield woes over the last few offseasons, and one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-514955","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115875947471894622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514955","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=514955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}