The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Testosterone, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
The suspension of Cabrera is effective immediately.
The San Francisco Giants released the following statement: “We were extremely disappointed to learn of the suspension of Melky Cabrera for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention & Treatment Program. We fully support Major League Baseball’s policy and its efforts to eliminate performance enhancing drugs from our game. Per the protocol outline by Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, the Giants will not comment further on this matter.”
Cabrera, 28, was batting .346, 13 points behind league-leader Andrew McCutchen of Pittsburgh and was the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game.
According to Bobbie Dittmeier of MLB.com, ” with 501 plate appearances, Cabrera is one shy of automatically qualifying for the NL batting title. However, he would win the title if were to still have the league’s highest average after the mathematical addition of one at-bat.”
Dittmeier goes on saying, “Cabrera is 159-for-459, good for a batting average of .3456 when carried to a fourth decimal. If Cabrera were theoretically given one more at-bat, 159-for-460 comes to an average of .3464. Both figures round out to .346. If no one has hit for a higher average, Cabrera would be the NL batting champion.”