Atlanta Braves outfielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar has failed a PED test for the second straight season and will now face a 162-game suspension, ESPN reported Tuesday. He was also set to be on Team Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic and is now ineligible for the event.
Profar was also suspended last season for a violation of the MLB Joint Drug Agreement. This time around, he’ll miss the entirety of the 2026 season. The first offense carries an 80-game suspension, the second is 162 games and the third is a permanent ban.
Keep in mind that suspended players aren’t eligible for the playoffs, so even if the Braves qualify for the postseason, Profar is out until 2027.
The Players Association plans to challenge “MLB’s intention to suspend” Profar for 162 games, according to The Athletic.
Profar, 33, had a career year in 2024 for the Padres. He hit .280/.380/.459 (134 OPS+) with 3.6 WAR and made his first All-Star team. He parlayed that into a three-year, $42 million deal with the Braves, but PED suspensions come without pay and he missed basically half of last season and will get nothing in 2026.
In his 80 games last year, Profar hit .245/.353/.434 (121 OPS+) with 16 doubles, 14 homers, 43 RBI and 56 runs, looking like he’d be an important part of the Braves’ 2026 lineup.
In fact, he was expected to hit cleanup while serving as Atlanta’s DH. The loss of Profar leaves the Braves scrambling. Until catcher Sean Murphy and infielder Ha-Seong Kim return from surgery, the best DH option on the big-league roster looks like Eli White. Maybe a non-roster invite to camp like Dom Smith makes a mark. The available pool of free agents is thinned to the point that possible options out there are Rowdy Tellez, Justin Turner, Wilmer Flores, Tommy Pham and Jesse Winker. Andrew McCutchen is also out there if he wants to stray from Pittsburgh.
The Braves could also wait until there are cuts from spring training or they could explore a trade (people continue to pine for Byron Buxton to return to Georgia, where he was born and raised, though he has long said he’s a Twin for life).
The Braves entered March as the favorites to win the NL East, according to some projections. FanGraphs had them winning the division by a game, Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA also had them by roughly one game. They were +190 to win the NL East on DraftKings, even with the Phillies and trailing the +165 Mets, entering Tuesday.
