Report: Marlon Byrd tested positive for PEDs, faces a 162-game suspension - MLB

Vince Grzegorek of Cleveland Scene reports that Indians outfielder Marlon Byrd has tested positive for a performance enhancing drug and faces a 162-game suspension. This has not yet been confirmed by Major League Baseball, but it is expected to be soon.

The suspension would be Byrd’s second for PEDs. The first came in 2012 when he tested positive for tamoxifen, which is used to deal with the side effects of steroids. Byrd served a 50-game suspension then. As of now, a second offense brings a suspension of 162 games.

Byrd signed with the Indians in March on a minor league deal and made the team out of spring training. He’s being paid $1 million and had the possibility of another $2.5 million in performance bonuses. Though he turns 39 in August, he’s been productive this year, hitting .270/.326/.452 with five homers and 19 driven in while playing the corners in the Indians’ injury-riddled outfield. Now, if this report is confirmed, it will be an even thinner squad.

As for Byrd, he didn’t have a job until late March this season, despite the fact that he was coming off of a 23-homer year in 2015, and then he could only land the minor league deal at that. It’s hard to imagine him latching on anywhere after a year-long suspension at age 39. As such this may be, for all intents and purposes, a career-ending suspension for the 15-year MLB veteran.

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Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.