Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday defended the league’s performance-enhancing drugs testing system and confirmed Pirates center fielder Starling Marte, suspended last week after testing positive for Nandrolone, did not appeal his 80-game suspension.
“I do not see it as a program failure that we have positive tests,” Manfred said, adding the number of tests have increased dramatically recently. “I doubt we will ever get to the point where any sport can say with 100 percent certainty no athlete is using a performance-enhancing drug.”
While general manager Neal Huntington said multiple times this past week “the appeal process was exhausted,” Marte’s representatives did not respond to requests for confirmation.