In unfortunate news, Met prospect, Eudor Garcia was suspended 80 games for PEDs. Garcia had surged up the rankings on the power of a tremendous leap in production. These numbers are now brought into question.
He hit .296 with 9 home runs and 59 RBIs in 2015 with Class A Savannah last season. He was the organization’s fourth-round pick in 2014 and had recently been ranked as Mets360’s #12 prospect.
The one consolation is that his suspension will allow the Mets to relax the progress of Jhoan Urena, who did not earn a promotion to AA. With Garcia’s suspension and Urena’s regression the Mets lack an internal heir to David Wright (unless you count Wilmer Flores).
So not only is this just bad news, his positive was for a steroid masking agent. In both circumstances the steroid and the masking agent are controlled substances needing a physician prescription. At 21 yo, Garcia seems to have quite an in-road to a sophisitcated doping plan. This isnt just stupid use of rubbing a steroid creme on his nuts, it also requires the forethought to know its cheating and to find a way to cover up his cheating. At Low A, we would all figure this as pretty impressive and also shows the depths to which the doping crisis exists. We sure seem to have a lot of people who cheat: maybe thats how Sandy can dig up the real undervalued players and get them to be stars.
At least with the masking agent, the player can’t say that he has no idea how the substance could have showed up in his urine. I looked up these substances when the story first hit and it wasn’t anything that might be in an over the counter shake from GNC or anything….
The masking drugs are physcian prescriptive as would be the steroid. That or getting it on the internet.
David,
Would you consider T.J. Rivera a possible “internal heir” to DW?
Rivera is a bench player.
Rivera could possibly fill the Tejada role as currently defined.
Seems to always hit.
Rivera would likely be an upgrade in hitting and a downgrade in fielding to Tejada. Truly, Matt Reynolds should be in the Ruben Tejada role.
I don’t actually think there should be a “Tejada role” as long as Wilmer is around to fill it.
A waste of a roster space.
I found it enjoyable watching Garcia blossom during the past Sand Gnat season. This is a huge disappointment.