{"id":605766,"date":"2026-03-04T13:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605766\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:57:19","slug":"phillies-johan-rojas-faces-suspension-for-drug-program-violation-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605766\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies\u2019 Johan Rojas faces suspension for drug program violation \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Though there has been no official announcement from the league, Phillies outfielder Johan Rojas is facing an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance that is in violation of Major League Baseball\u2019s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. He is appealing the suspension, sources confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas could become the second Phillie in as many years to be disciplined under MLB\u2019s drug policy. Reliever Jos\u00e9 Alvarado received an 80-game suspension last May.<\/p>\n<p>Max Kepler, who was also with the club in 2025, failed the same program this off-season.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas, 25, struggled in limited opportunities last season, slashing .224\/.280\/.289 with six extra-base hits across 71 games. He hit .279 in 147 at-bats with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhillies&#8217; Johan Rojas makes incredible grab at the warning track in the 9th inning.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>With his defensive value and speed, he was tracking toward a bench role this spring as Philadelphia\u2019s fourth true outfielder, with Otto Kemp also in the mix as part of a potential left-field platoon alongside Brandon Marsh.<\/p>\n<p>Being that the suspension is 80 games, Rojas will be ineligible for the postseason. He did not make the Phillies\u2019 NLDS roster last October.<\/p>\n<p>The news was also reported on Sunday by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wilberdata\/status\/2028313866807976050?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wilber S\u00e1nchez on X<\/a>, who noted Rojas is no longer eligible to participate in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n<p>If the Phillies choose to add another outfield option to the end of the bench, utility-man Dylan Moore is a likely candidate. The 33-year-old, and former Gold Glover, has played parts of seven big league seasons and is in camp on a minor league deal with incentives. He&#8217;s appeared at every position defensively but catcher in the majors. Outfielder Bryan De La Cruz could also factor into that competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though there has been no official announcement from the league, Phillies outfielder Johan Rojas is facing an 80-game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-605766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116171260128416073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605766","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=605766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}