White Sox catcher Welington Castillo suspended 80 games after positive drug test
For the second time in nine days, Major League Baseball has suspended one of its players 80 games because of a failed drug test.
Chicago White Sox catcher Welington Castillo was suspended Thursday for testing positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, the performance-enhancing substance infamously used by disgraced Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
Castillo, 31, is batting .267 in 33 games, with six home runs. The White Sox signed him to a two-year, $15-million contract. The suspension will cost him about $3.6 million.
“The positive test resulted from an extremely poor decision that I, and I alone, made,” Castillo said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for my conduct.
In his 2013 confession to Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong said there had been an “EPO generation” of cyclists in a sport that, like baseball, had to confront an epidemic of performance-enhancing drugs.
EPO boosts energy and stamina by increasing the amount of oxygen carried in the bloodstream.
Seattle Mariners star Robinson Cano was suspended last week after testing positive for a diuretic that the drug program administrator determined had been taken to mask the use of another banned substance.
Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin
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