The Detroit Tigers announced Friday that minor leaguer Cesar Carrillo has been suspended 100 games for violating baseball’s minor league drug prevention and treatment program.
Carrillo, the Padres’ first-round pick in 2005, is a product of the University of Miami, where he played with Ryan Braun and Danny Valencia.
Carrillo started three games in 2009 for the Padres, going 1-2 with a 13.06 earned run average.
While the suspension of a farm league player normally wouldn’t make headlines, CBS Sports points out Carrillo’s ban is newsworthy because of his ties to Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic in South Florida that supplied performance-enhancing drugs to several MLB players.
Carrillo was first linked to Biogenesis in January in a report by the Miami New Times that said he had received human growth hormone, testosterone and at least one other substance.
The newspaper went on to say that a handful of other high-profile major league players, including Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera and Nelson Cruz, also received substances from the clinic.
Because the exact reason for Carrillo’s suspension wasn’t given along with the ban, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal points out that the case could be an early indicator of things to come for others named in the Biogenesis documents, particularly minor leaguers not currently on a 40-man roster.
Rosenthal writes:
“Baseball enjoys greater jurisdiction over minor leaguers like Carrillo than major leaguers who are protected by the players’ union. When MLB announces the suspension of a major leaguer, it details the nature of his offense.”
As it stands, MLB is still investigating the clinic and attempting to gain access to the records obtained by the Miami New Times.
To date the newspaper has refused to turn them over.
The Tigers signed Carrillo to a minor-league contract in June of 2012, and stated Friday that Carrillo’s suspension will be effective at the start of the 2013 championship season.