You get one benefit of the doubt. Jurickson Profar used his up last year.
When he tested positive for Chorionic Gonadotropin and ate an 80-game suspension in 2025, he put out a statement saying, "I would never willingly take a banned substance, but I take full responsibility and accept MLB's decision." Fine. People make mistakes. Tainted supplements happen. You can extend a little grace to a first-time offender who says the right things and takes the medicine.
That grace is gone now.
In March, the Office of the Commissioner announced that Profar tested positive again, this time for exogenous testosterone and its metabolites, and hit him with a 162-game suspension without pay. The whole season. His second career PED bust in two years. Because it's a second offense, the usual courtesy didn't apply: his ban wasn't stayed while the process played out. He was out immediately, effective in early March.
So drop the "maybe it was an accident" script. Once is a story you can tell yourself. Twice, on two different substances that point in the same direction, is a pattern. You don't accidentally show up with elevated testosterone the year after getting popped for a hormone that helps produce testosterone. That's not a reader making a leap. That's just reading the two positive tests in order.
The union grievance was noise
Here's where it gets worse. The Players Association filed a grievance at Profar's request, taking the case to the independent arbitrator. In theory, that's the system working. In practice, it looked like reflex.
The union files. That's what it does. There's a real argument that it should defend its members against a flawed testing regime. But defending a member and defending the indefensible are different jobs, and this one always looked like the second kind. The appeal was resolved in mid-March, and it failed. Profar will miss all of 2026 and stays ineligible for the postseason if Atlanta gets there. Same suspension, same length, same result. All the grievance bought was a couple of weeks and a headline.
When the fight is that short and the outcome that clean, it's fair to ask what the point was, beyond obligation. The union didn't overturn anything. It didn't shave a single game. It swung, missed, and moved on. If there had been a genuine hole in MLB's case, a botched chain of custody, a contaminated sample, you'd expect a longer fight and a better result. Instead the arbitrator looked at it and upheld the whole thing.
Nobody in his corner is actually defending him
Notice who isn't circling the wagons. The Braves put out a statement calling themselves "incredibly disappointed" and saying "The Atlanta Braves fully support the Program." That's a club distancing itself, not protecting a guy. And it costs them almost nothing to do it: Profar forfeits his entire $15 million salary for the season, which also spares Atlanta the luxury-tax hit on that money. The team that signed him to a three-year, $42 million deal after his 2024 All-Star year is quietly relieved to have the whole thing off the books.
Add it up and the price of two positive tests is somewhere around $21 million in docked pay across two seasons, plus a spot on the Netherlands roster for the World Baseball Classic he can't fill. That's a staggering amount of self-inflicted damage for a hitter who batted .245 in the 80 games he did play in 2025.
The next one ends everything
This is the part that should get everyone's attention. One more positive test and Profar is done. Not suspended. Banned for life. Only Jenrry Mejia has ever hit that third strike. Profar is now one bad test away from joining him.
You can keep telling the story where he's a victim of a flawed system, a good clubhouse guy who got unlucky twice. Or you can look at what actually happened: two failed tests, a suspension that wasn't even stayed, a grievance that got waved through and shot down, and a club that couldn't wait to say it supports the policy. He's already sat out the season he lost.
The benefit of the doubt was a one-time coupon. He cashed it in 2025. There's nothing left to give.
