Just Mets

“Selfishness.” “Ignorance.” “Lying.”

 Those are three words often associated with baseball players associated with performance enhancing drugs.

In the case of Jenrry Mejia, he certainly took the ignorance route upon being suspended for using stanazolol, a banned steroid in baseball, on Saturday afternoon.

“I know the rules are the rules and I will accept my punishment, but I can honestly say I have no idea how a banned substance ended up in my system,” Mejia said in a statement issued by the MLBPA on Saturday afternoon.

But one word which is less associated with doping in sports – and baseball in particular – is, ” carelessness.”

As such, Jared Diamond in today’s Wall Street Journal wonders if Mejia may have also acted out of carelessness, and he truly did not know he was using a banned substance.

Diamond spoke with several players on Sunday about such a possibility.

“I can’t really fault someone for not knowing, because I don’t know the circumstances,” Jerry Blevins told Diamond.

Still, whether Mejia did this innocently or not, it doesn’t excuse the behavior. Professional athletes have a responsibility to adhere to the policy outlined in the joint drug agreement between the league and the union. In doing so, a player must receive authorization to use any drug or substance which is considered banned or unauthorized.

But there’s also the due diligence portion of the process which often goes unspoken. In other words, if a player doesn’t know or isn’t entirely sure what a particular substance is or has in it, consultation would clear the matter up. Of course, that might not necessarily stop a player from using a substance he realizes is banned.

“Not knowing what you’re taking is also a decision in itself of just not being careful. In that regard, he made a bad decision still,” Dillon Gee explained to Diamond.

Maybe it was carelessness. Maybe it was ignorance. Perhaps Mejia is lying. Maybe it’s all three combined to a degree. No matter what, it certainly was an act of selfishness on the part of Mejia.

Now, Mejia is gone until July 6 at the earliest and he will not be able to participate in the playoffs should the Mets qualify. But he may not be paying the steepest price for his actions.

His teammates, manager and coaching staff seem to be on the hook for a lot more, as they try to fill the avoidable hole left by Mejia in the bullpen.

For more from Diamond and other players on Mejia, check out the Wall Street Journal.