Former major league infielder Derek Dietrich was one of five minor leaguers suspended on Friday for violating the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
Dietrich, who plays for the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for the stimulant 1,4-dimethylpentylamine.
Dietrich, 33, hit .245 with 84 homers and 255 RBIs in 746 games with the Miami Marlins (2013-18), Cincinnati Reds (2019) and Texas Rangers (2020). He belted a career-best 19 homers for the Reds in a season in which he hit 12 in the month of May.
Dietrich split this season between Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Double-A Somerset and has a combined .259 average with nine homers and 38 RBIs in 59 games.
Also suspended were pitchers Ivan Gonzalez (60 games), Elvin Valerio (60 games) and Kanoa Pagan (50 games) as well as outfielder Karell Paz (60 games).
Gonzalez, a member of the Toronto Blue Jays’ Dominican summer league roster, tested positive for the performance-enhancer Stanozolol.
Valerio, who is on the Detroit Tigers’ Dominican summer league roster, tested positive for Stanozolol and GW501516, a Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor agonist.
Pagan, who is on the Arizona Complex League roster of the San Francisco Giants, tested positive for the stimulant Amphetamine.
Paz, who was is with the New York Mets’ Florida Complex League team, also tested positive for Stanozolol.
–Field Level Media