Elephant Rumblings: MLB players face harder scrutiny on doping, sticky stuff in 2022

It’s the weekend, Athletics Nation!

The A’s got their second win of the spring yesterday against the Brewers, and we are two weeks away from Opening Day. Once the season does begin, players across MLB will be facing two forms of further scrutiny from the league.

First, as detailed in the New York Times, due to the expiration of the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement in December of last year, the randomized drug testing players must undergo was fully suspended. The lockout of players that was enacted by Commissioner Rob Manfred meant that there was no legal authority for the league to test players until a new CBA was signed. This means that any players who foresaw the three months that the lockout lasted could have partaken in performance enhancing drugs during the period they went untested.

A sport scientist interviewed by the Times explained that while larger injections of steroids used could be still detectable by the time that testing resumed, lower dose oils and creams could be used and be undetectable before players could be tested. The plausible scenario specifically mentioned was players using said creams while training without team oversight, and working to gain muscle mass. Then, when players return for the season their gains will stay for months, while the traces of substances are gone right away.

The A’s enter 2022 with Ramon Laureano waiting out the remaining 27 games of an 80 game suspension from a previous positive test for nandrolone. Hopefully their roster won’t face any more suspensions this year from players taking advantage of the lapse in testing.

The other crackdown MLB players will face this season is further scrutiny regarding pitchers using ‘sticky stuff’ to exert extra control over the ball. As reported on by Tom Verducci for Sports Illustrated, the league issued a memo to all teams yesterday building upon the checks that were started last June.

Umpires will continue randomly inspecting pitchers hands, hats, belts, and gloves as was done for the second half of last season. Inspections will be expected more than once per game for starters, at least once for relievers, and can be performed on other position players as well. New to this season are harsher restrictions on pitcher conduct around hands and testing, specifically as stated in the memo:

“If an umpire observes a pitcher attempt to wipe off his hands prior to an inspection he may be subject to immediate ejection.”

The renewed vigilance on pitchers substances is due to spin rate picking back up by the end of last season, after the dramatic drop off when pitcher testing began on June 21. The use of gripping substances was somewhat of an open secret across baseball, with a mixed reception across pitchers and batters. Once MLB announced that pitchers would be checked for sticky stuff by umpires mid-game, four-seamer spin rates dropped on average by about 400rpm, and that was matched by an increase in batting average against the pitch from .219 to .263.

Spin rate numbers began climbing again by the end of the 2021 season, though not matching their pre-June peak. According to Verducci there is some speculation that players figured out ways to hide substances outside of their hats, gloves, and belts, hence the addition of hands to checks. There were some dramatic checks last year at the onset of testing, including then-National Max Scherzer being checked three times in four innings leading to Phillies manager Joe Girardi being ejected, and new Mariners signee Sergio Romo dropping trou in Oakland foul territory upon his first checks of the year.

A’s Coverage

• Ashford: Spring Game #7: A’s fall behind early, charge back in win
• Hall: A’s re-sign Jed Lowrie!
• Hall: Stephen Vogt can be more than just a feel-good story for A’s
• Gallegos: Vogt’s return to Oakland ‘a dream come true’
• He: Vogt ‘thrilled’ to return to A’s, embraces new faces
• Kawahara: Veteran Stephen Vogt ‘ecstatic’ about his return to A’s as a reserve ($)
• Gallegos: Predicting the A’s Opening Day roster
• Gallegos: Manaea shows return to form in second start
• Rosenstein: Yankees can close blockbuster A’s trade without giving up top prospects, MLB insider says
• Kawahara: Eric Thames mashes first spring home run in bid for A’s job ($)
• Simon: Bellarmine grad Thames grateful for chance to win A’s first base job ($)

MLB News & Interest

• NY Times: ‘The Gains That Could Be Made Would Be Enormous’ ($) (Regarding drug testing being suspended during the lockout)
• Verducci: MLB Further Cracks Down on Sticky Stuff Due to Suspected Cheating
• Ozanian, Teitelbaum: Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams 2022: Yankees hit $6 Billion As New CBA Creates New Revenue Streams
• McDaniel: Kiley McDaniel’s 2022 American League team-by-team prospect rankings
• Doolittle, Schoenfield: the way-too-early 2027 All-MLB team
• Sarris: Ten bold predictions for a wacky 2022 season ($)
• Lindbergh: Can Shohei Ohtani Be Even Better?
• Buchanan: Moneyball for movies: Meet the Mets executive with another claim to fame — predicting the Oscars with math ($)
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter

*Tom Sawyer intensifies*

Maybe they’re just getting the band back together

Yesterday we were treated to some father and son commentating

Looks like Mike Fiers has found a home with Leones de Yucatán in Liga Mexicana de Beisbol

We need this kind of energy in Major League Baseball

Stephen Vogt is as happy to be coming back to the Coliseum as we are to see him there

All 30 parks will keep balls in humidors this season, expect a similar effect to that noted for the Giants

Can you guess the Athletic?