Jenrry Mejia Says MLB Suspended Him Because He Wouldn’t Snitch on Another Player

Since it was announced last month, New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia has steadfastly denied the legitimacy of his third, and likely final, suspension from Major League Baseball for using performance enhancing drugs. Today, at a press conference at his attorney’s law office, Mejia made the claim that MLB tried to strong arm him into testifying against another player they were suspicious of having used PEDs.

These claims would seem outrageous if MLB didn’t already have a track record of shady dealings in its pursuit of ridding the sport of the scourge of steroids. Whatever your feelings on the use of PEDs in sports, it’s hard to argue that baseball acted admirably in sussing out whether Alex Rodriguez (specifically) and others had doped using Anthony Bosch’s Biogenesis facility. MLB paid Bosch off for his cooperation, agreed to indemnify him, and interfered in a state investigation when it ignored warnings and bought the (likely stolen) documents it later used to pin a 162-game suspension on A-Rod.

With that sort of zealous and below-board activity as precedent, it’s not entirely crazy that Mejia is telling the truth when he says MLB threatened to “go out of their way” to find a third failed test. Of course, Mejia and his attorney are obviously aware of this history, too, and could be using it against the league to garner public support for an appeal of his third test, which is otherwise unappealable under the policy.