I like David Pinto. I like Baseball Musings. But he’s wrong. Not all the time, just specifically here. I’m not against asking the question or speculation, but there’s two things I want to address that are real issues:

1. “Springing random tests.” I don’t think David meant it like that. So I emailed him. He hasn’t responded yet, but I’ll update this if he does. The Joint Drug Agreement does have a provision for “for-cause” testing. It’s been in place for a long time and there’s no way of knowing how or even if it’s used. Clearly, teams shy away from it, much in the way that few complain when team stash someone on the DL. 

UPDATE: David responded to my email saying: “Yes, I’m saying I would advocate for-cause testing on Bautista.  How long is a steroid cycle? Six weeks?  I would test him once a week for six weeks.  I would also allow him to release the negative results when the questions arose. By random, I meant he didn’t know when the tests would be sprung on him.” As I suspected, this was a bit of a definition issue as much as it is a drug-testing issue.

2. Let’s remember that Jose Bautista has been drug tested this season. Under the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement, Bautista has been tested at least twice and possibly as many as ten.* I am a huge advocate of giving an athlete a document that details the date of a drug test and the results. At one time, I called this an “athlete’s passport” but the term is used by WADA for a different program. If Bautista could hold up his document and say “look, I got tested on Feb 20th, May 2d, and Aug 1st and the results were negative for all three”, then the speculation would be over. Ok, not over, but it should be, given the efficacy of MLB’s testing program. This would give athletes a very solid response rather than just the “no I didn’t.” This isn’t something the league should release; it’s up to the individual player to show it. Granted, we should be able to assume innocence. We know MLB tests, we know how often they test, we know how long it takes to make a positive test public, and we know that thus far, Jose Bautista has not tested positive for a performance-enhancer during his time in the major leagues, all of which has come during the “testing era.” For what it’s worth - absolutely nothing - Jose Bautista played in Indianapolis over parts of three seasons. He looks like exactly the same guy physically today as he did in ‘08.

* For the high number, he would have to be on the accelerated program, which is possible. MLB does not disclose the number of players who have tested positive once for stimulants and are subject to additional testing. We can estimate the number from the statistics released once a year by MLB’s Independent Program Administrator. Last year, the number could be estimated as somewhere between 30 and 40 on the accelerated program.