Just two months after the Atlanta Braves signed Jurickson Profar to a $42 million contract, the All-Star outfielder and Silver Slugger Award winner was suspended 80 games under MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Now, one of Profar’s old peers is proposing a far more costly punishment than just a suspension.
Profar delivered a career-best season in 2024, setting career highs in home runs (24), RBI (85) and OPS (.839) with a .280/.380/459 slash line. Atlanta signed the switch-hitter in January, betting on Profar’s improvements in his age-31 season providing much-needed production while Ronald Acuña was sidelined.
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- Jurickson Profars stats (2012-2023): .238/.322/.383, 9 HRs per season, 36 RBI per season, .706 OPS
After playing in just four regular-season games with Atlanta, Major League Baseball announced on March 31 that Profar was suspended 80 games for violating the league’s joint drug prevention and treatment program. He tested positive for Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG), a performance-enhancing substance.
As a result of the suspension, Profar will forego the salary that he was scheduled to receive over that 80-game span. More devastating for Atlanta, the corner outfielder isn’t eligible to play in the MLB playoffs. The consequences of the PED suspension are more damaging for the team, which seems to be fueling one proposal from a former MLB star.
As highlighted by Bob Nightengale of USA Today, former All-Star first baseman Eric Hosmer shared on his Diggin’ Deep podcast that the MLB needs to stiffen its penalties for players caught using PEDs. Specifically, he is lobbying for the players union and MLB to void guarantees in contracts for players suspended for PED use.
“The only way that this game gets cleaned up and these guys don’t risk 80-game suspensions for another couple years on the back end is to take away guaranteed money . If you tell me that I have $110 million on the line for these next three years and I could possibly lose that, I’m not even thinking (about risking a suspension). So, for me, I think that’s the only way to clean up the game in this way.”
Eric Hosmer’s proposed penalties for MLB players caught using PEDs after Jurickson Profar suspension
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- Jurickson Profar contract (Spotrac): $12 million salary in 2025, $15 million salary in 2026 and ’27
Unlike the National Football League, MLB contracts are fully guaranteed. If Hosmer’s proposal was implemented the entirety of Profar’s $42 million contract would become non-guaranteed and he’d have to earn the rest of it by playing out the entirety of the deal.
However, much like they are with a proposed MLB salary cap in the future, the MLB Players’ Association is strongly opposed to the voiding of contract guarantees for suspensions. The players’ union is adamant about deals remaining fully guaranteed, not giving clubs wiggle room to just get out of deals.
With the league office more focused on implementing a salary cap and floor in 2027, threatening a potential lockout, there’s very little chance that Hosmer’s proposal will ever gain traction. The Braves will simply have to eat Profar’s contract, with their gamble on his outlier production having backfired.
