The Atlanta Braves have designated veteran outfielder Alex Verdugo for assignment, the team announced Wednesday. Verdugo’s departure clears space for fellow outfielder Jurickson Profar, who returns from a PED suspension to face the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday (GameTracker).
Profar, 32, was banished for 80 games in late March after testing positive for Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a substance prohibited by Major League Baseball. In four contests prior to the suspension, he went 3 for 15 with no extra-base hits and two more strikeouts than walks. According to the Cleveland Clinic, hCG is a “hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy” that “helps thicken a person’s uterine lining to support a growing embryo and tells the body to stop menstruation The hormone stimulates the corpus luteum to produce progesterone to maintain the pregnancy.”
Profar signed a three-year pact worth $42 million with the Braves in the spring after enjoying a banner season with the San Diego Padres. He hit .280/.380/.459 (134 OPS+) and earned a spot in the All-Star Game as well as a Silver Slugger Award and downballot consideration for the MVP award.
Should the Braves make the postseason, Profar will not be eligible to partake as part of his punishment for failing the performance-enhancing drug test. Of course, it’s unclear at this point if the Braves will qualify for the tournament. They entered Wednesday with a 38-46 record, putting them 7 ½ games back of the third and final National League wild-card spot. The Braves have a positive run differential, yet they possess one of the worst records in the majors in one-run games. Still, if Profar can perform anything like last season, he’ll be a major boon in their efforts to correct their course.
Verdugo, 29, hit just .239/.296/.289 with no home runs and 10 extra-base hits in 56 games. Atlanta deployed him in a strict platoon role, with more than 85% of his plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching. Nonetheless, Verdugo was unable to fare better than a 65 OPS+ that would have represented the worst mark of his big-league career if it had sustained over the rest of the year.
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