All of baseball, it seems, is back on the topic of PED testing ever since Pirates outfielder Starling Marte was popped for 80 games. Among those sounding off is Cubs right-hander and 2015 NL Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta.
That's significant because Arrieta, as someone who enjoyed success after struggling for much of his career, has been subject to idle and irresponsible speculation along these lines. As I've written before, there many simpler and more logical explanations for Arrieta's mid-career improvements.
Anyhow, Arrieta, pursuant to the Marte suspension, appeared on 670 The Score's Bernstein and Goff in Chicago and discussed these issues. Click through to give a listen to Arrieta's entire appearance, and to get you started, here's a money quote. In addition to estimating that he himself gets tested 10 to 15 times per year, Arrieta said:
"[Anthony] Rizzo and a couple of other guys had a blood test after the game a couple of nights ago. I've had it happen before. I think they do a pretty good job of doing it before the game, after the game, so it makes it harder for guys to get around the system. Unfortunately, I think you're going to continue to see some guys try. But it just shows with a guy like Marte getting caught, the system is working."
It's been said countless times, but highly competitive professional athletes are going to do what they can to get an edge, and for some that means wandering into a moral gray area. There's never going to be any way to snuff out completely the use of substances that -- somewhat arbitrarily -- have been deemed unacceptable. However, the testing in MLB is rigorous, and guys occasionally get caught. That shows that some players still use even in the era of testing and a subset of those players get caught.
Beyond that, we're all guessing.
