DePodesta Used Own Kind of Steroid Testing

Does he or doesn’t he? The Dodgers made the question of steroid use a key factor in determining which free agents to pursue during the off-season, General Manager Paul DePodesta said Friday.

The team concluded that second baseman Jeff Kent, outfielder J.D. Drew and pitcher Derek Lowe did not use performance-enhancing substances and signed them to contracts worth a total of $108 million.

“Yes, it was a consideration,” DePodesta said. “First and foremost, those are players we wanted, but we felt good about them. Talk of steroid use has not been an issue with any of them.”

All three players support the Major League Baseball testing program that began this week. Kent, in fact, said it was not strong enough, adding, “Baseball is tarnished. It’s embarrassing. We need to fix it.”

Drew, who said he doesn’t drink, smoke or take drugs, wants a level playing field. Lowe was irritated by reports that the Boston Red Sox did not re-sign him in part because of his alleged late-night merriment. The Dodgers, however, checked into more serious matters.

Steroids? No rumors. Human growth hormone? No whispers.

“Now teams do their homework,” said Lowe, who got a four-year, $36-million deal. “You have to do your own investigation before you give a guy a long contract. If he breaks down like an old car, what have you got?”

The New York Yankees are finding out. They gave Jason Giambi a seven-year, $120-million contract in 2002. Giambi reportedly told a federal grand jury in the BALCO investigation that he used steroids. Last season, he had a benign tumor of the pituitary gland, sat out half the season and batted .208.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Giambi told the grand jury he took steroids as early as 2001, while he was a member of the Oakland Athletics. DePodesta, the team’s assistant general manager from 1999 to 2003, refused to comment on any suspicions he might have had.

But his approach to evaluating prospective Dodger players speaks volumes.

“It’s a factor when making a decision,” he said. “Our job is to predict the future performance of players. It is very difficult to account for something that alters performance as much as steroids.”

The Dodgers, he said, consult doctors and trainers, scouts and coaches, players and acquaintances before signing a player.

“We do a medical analysis and talk to people who coached and knew him,” DePodesta said. “We try to make an informed decision.”

For many years, general managers turned a blind eye to players who showed signs of steroid use.

“The truth is, we’re in a competitive business and these guys were putting up big numbers and helping your ballclub win games,” San Diego Padre General Manager Kevin Towers told ESPN Magazine. “You tended to turn your head on things.

“I hate to be the one voice for the other 29 GMs, but I’d have to imagine that all of them, at one point or other, had reason to think that a player on their ballclub was probably using, based on body changes and things that happened over the winter.”

Steroids were not banned in baseball until 2003 and testing that could lead to penalties did not begin until last season. The players’ union and Major League Baseball agreed to step up the program this season, and testing began Thursday at spring training sites. The Dodgers have not yet been tested.

Every player will be subjected to at least one unannounced urine test. First-time offenders would be suspended 10 days without pay.

Medical experts have pointed out flaws in the program. Blood is not tested, even though that is the only way to detect human growth hormone. Also, the penalties are not nearly as stringent as those imposed on Olympic athletes.

Kent, a former player representative, says he believes an independent third party should oversee the testing. And as a father of four children, including two sons who watch ESPN and wear the jerseys of their favorites players, he says he is angry that all players are under a blanket of suspicion.

“You can’t really pick and choose who is a user by seeing a player,” Kent said. “Who is and who isn’t? Nobody knows. The unknown, that’s one of the problems, because then people start pointing fingers.”

The public might be suspicious based on bulging muscles, especially when there is a dramatic change in a player’s physique over the off-season.

“This year, you might see a substantial decrease in someone’s size and you might see a decrease in his production,” Lowe said.

And eventually a player might be out of the lineup for 10 days because of a positive test.

“It’s not just that players might be caught through the testing process, we have to ask ourselves whether someone is likely to break down physically,” DePodesta said.

Yet determining whether a player is a user is hardly an exact science. The testing program is far from fail-safe and honest work in the weight room can produce dramatic results.

“All we are capable of doing is to gather as much information as possible,” DePodesta said. “It’s the same process as trying to find out about a guy’s mental makeup.”

There are no worries about the key players added to the Dodgers, of that he is convinced.

Kent, for one, is among a handful of players who has been vocal about eliminating steroids from baseball once and for all.

“I don’t want to become a mouthpiece about this, but it’s not going away,” he said.

“All I hope is for everyone to be made aware of the past and go forward from the point of view that we have a problem and have to fix it.”