Yasmani Grandal suspended 50 games
San Diego Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal was suspended for 50 games due to to a positive test for PEDs. Grandal reportedly had a high testosterone level, The suspension is for the same thing that both Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon were suspended for during the season.
This is obviously not good news for the Padres. Grandal was acquired by the Padres last winter as the centerpiece of the deal that sent Mat Latos from the Padres to the Reds. In 60 games in the majors, he had an .863 OPS while homering eight times and accruing 2.6 fWAR for the Padres.
The suspension for Grandal will likely mean that the team will likely be more hesitant in dealing veteran Nick Hundley. Hundley is under contract through 2014, making $3 million in 2013 and $4 million in 2014. In 58 games last year, Hundley had just a .464 OPS before having knee surgery at the end of August. The Padres also have veteran John Baker on the roster, who had a .590 OPS last season and is entering his second arbitration season in 2013.
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For those who search for silver linings, the bright sides are 1) Grandal's clock stops - his first year of arbitration is now an extra year away; 2) since minor league drug standards are stricter, there's less concern that Grandal's consideral past performance was drug-induced; 3) Grandal is only 24 and there's no history of anything but this being an instance of youthful indiscretion; 4) Hundley had four seasons of steady improvement before last year, and it could be that 2012 was the fluke, not the four years before, so 5) the Grandal caper may have allowed the team to give Hundley a shot to recover from his only bad year in five, and turn out to be either a better backup than John Baker, or a more valuable trade chip either in July or next off-season. There you have it - a plethora of silver linings! You could almost say Grandal getting busted was a GOOD thing. Almost.
