The father of banned San Diego Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. has railed against the MLB before claiming the positive test resulted from treatment for a shoddy haircut.
Tatis Jr. was handed a huge 80-game suspension last week for violating the league’s drug policy.
The 23-year old tested positive for Clostebol, which is an anabolic steroid derivative of the natural hormone testosterone, and is on the MLB’s banned list.
Today, his father, Tatis Sr. spoke out about his son’s situation explaining the alleged circumstances behind the positive test.
Fernando Tatis Jr. was handed a huge 80-game suspension last week for violating drug policy
‘What involves him (Tatis Jr.) is a steroid that contains a spray called trofobol… He got a fungus due to a haircut,’ Sr. said, via Hector Gomez.
‘His mistake was not reading what it contains, which is what apparently makes him guilty of something totally unknown.
‘It was a mistake that could have been handled differently, destroy the image of a player for such a small thing, for a situation like this.
‘Is a catastrophe not just for Tatis Jr, but for all baseball. There’s millions of fans that will stop watching baseball.’
Tatis is just 18 months into a monumental 14-year, $330million MLB contract, but he will not be paid for the entirety of his ban, which extends through the whole of this season and well into the next.
The Dominican will not be paid by the team while serving the MLB enforced suspension
‘All of this has happened because of something that is not worth this issue. This is something for the skin, that’s something that’s not performance enhancing and has no testosterone. It has nothing to help you improve in the game.’
MLB’s newest bad boy broke his silence on Friday night, revealing his ‘mistake’ was down to medication he was taking for ringworm, which was backed up by his father.
Tatis had been rehabbing his way back from a wrist injury and had recently begun an assignment with the Padres Double-A affiliate, but is now not going to see an MLB field for the foreseeable future.
There was no firm timetable on his injury return but he was projected to be back with San Diego in mid-August.
Since the suspension was announced the Padres have gone 2-1 and currently occupy the second of three NL Wild Card spots.
The Padres remain a threat in the NL playoffs but sit 14 games behind division rivals, LA