Jenrry Mejia, the
Mets pitcher who was
permanently barred from baseball after three failed doping tests, claims that he was the victim of a witch hunt by Major League Baseball and that the players’ union did not properly advocate on his behalf.
Baseball’s drug-testing program, which is jointly administered with the players’ union, caught Mejia using anabolic steroids three times. He was penalized twice in 2015, then received the permanent suspension last month.
But Mejia, 26, said in an interview Thursday that he was guilty only of the first doping offense. After the second positive test, which he said was somehow inaccurate, he was pressured by Major League Baseball officials to share information about his doping connections, he said.
Mejia said that baseball officials told him that if he appealed the punishment for the second doping offense, “they will find a way to find a third positive,” Mejia said through an interpreter. “I felt there was a conspiracy against me. I feel that they were trying to find something to bring me down in my career.
Baseball officials denied making any such threats. “No one at M.L.B. or representing M.L.B. has met with Mejia regarding any of these drug violations,” Pat Courtney, a league spokesman, said.
Mejia’s agent, Peter Greenberg, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Baseball’s antidoping protocols allow for Mejia to apply for reinstatement after a year, in 2017. But the minimum penalty is two years, so regardless of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision, Mejia would not be eligible to play again until 2018.
His hopes of reinstatement will probably not be helped by his claims that Major League Baseball fabricated a positive drug test to get him out of the sport.
Mejia also said that he asked the players’ union for help, but representatives told him there were no grounds for an appeal.
“The association should have done more,” Mejia said, adding that he thought the union “should have been there to defend me — because that’s what they’re there for. They should have found something to appeal for.”