MLB PED users playing well post-suspension

Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer took a look today at some of the recent Major League Baseball players who were suspended last year for performance-enhancing drugs and how they are performing this season, post-suspension. It is an interesting read.

First, Rymer lays out the numbers for Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Jhonny Peralta, as well as Melky Cabrera, who was suspended in 2012. Braun, although he’s seen time on the DL this season, is hitting very well. Meanwhile, Cruz, Peralta and Cabrera are having career years, arguably playing the best they ever have.

These are surprising findings for players who were supposedly enhancing their performance last year and are not anymore. Of course, that statement makes a few assumptions. As Rymer details, it is possible that such players are still cheating and have not gotten caught.

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It is also possible that we are dealing with coincidences here. Rymer does not mention every player who was suspended last year for PEDs because not everyone is having such a great season right now. San Diego’s Everth Cabrera, for example, is hitting no where near as well as he did a season ago, when he put together the best season of his career.

It will also be worth checking back in with these four guys as 2014 progresses to see where their numbers are. Approaching Memorial Day, players are still under 200 at-bats for the season. Even close to two months does not make a season. It is quite plausible that each is playing over their head in an attempt to prove their innocence and the production will fade off as the weeks go on. That type of motivation only lasts so long.

Whatever the case may be, it is a curious trend to keep an eye on.