MLB and the MLBPA just released the annual public report from the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program’s Independent Program Administrator. It’s the annual report, mandated by the JDA, which says how many positive drug tests there were, what the drugs were, etc.
The notable numbers, which cover the period starting when the 2014 World Series ended until the 2015 World Series ended:
- Total number of tests administered: 8,158. 6,536 of them were urine tests, 1,622 of them were blood tests for HGH;
- 10 tests resulted in positives which led to discipline: 7 for PEDs, 2 for stimulants, one for DHEA;
- The previous year there were 7,929 total tests with 12 which resulted in discipline;
- There were the same number of Therapeutic Use Exemptions granted this year as last: 113. All but two were for attention deficit disorder. One was for gynecomastia, which is the swelling of the breast tissue in men due to a hormone imbalance, one was for a stress fracture in someone’s elbow.
A use exemption line item which had appeared on the list for the previous several years -- hypogonadism -- was not there, so congratulations to the anonymous player who was either cured or who retired.
As we always note, the number of players who got exemptions for ADD drugs is a bit higher than the occurrence of ADD in the population at large and, once you eliminate kids from ADHD occurrences, it’s likely considerably higher. But that’s none of my business.