Report: Pascual Perez Tests Positive for Drugs

New York Yankee pitcher Pascual Perez, who failed to show at camp Thursday, has tested positive for drugs and could be facing a one-year suspension, according to a source close to the player.

A spokesman at the commissioner’s office would not comment directly on the test result, but said a statement would be made concerning Perez’s status today. The spokesman said Commissioner Fay Vincent was en route from the owner’s meetings in Rosemont, Ill., to Florida.

The Yankees would neither confirm nor deny that Perez had failed the drug test.

Perez has had trouble stemming from drugs before. On April 17, 1984, as a member of the Atlanta Braves, he was suspended retroactive to April 3 through May 15 after his Jan. 9 arrest in the Dominican Republic on charges of cocaine possession.

After Perez failed to comply with an aftercare program and was ordered to spend spring training of 1989 in rehabilitation at the Palm Beach Institute while with the Montreal Expos, the commissioner’s office said he faced a minimum one-year suspension if he again failed to comply. In baseball, drug suspensions are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Pitcher Melido Perez, acquired by the Yankees from the Chicago White Sox during the winter, said he did not know if his brother had tested positive for drugs.

Perez, 34, is entering the final season of a three-year, $5.7-million contract. If he is suspended, the Yankees would not have to pay the final year.