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I'm as skeptical as anyone when an athlete says "I have no idea how this got in my system." But here's why @TresBarrera13's suspension leaves some room for doubt. The drug found in his system is Turinabol, which is as old-school as they get. (It was popular in East Germany.) 1 https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1287010807889498112
A knowledgeable doper wouldn't take it. There are too many modern options that leave the system within days. Could it have come from a supplement? Maybe, but right now USADA has only one Turinabol-tainted product on its "high risk" list, which is subtly called "Turinabol 10." 2
Barrera didn't claim to take a tainted supplement. He also didn't test positive for other drugs. His agent, Scott Lonergan, tells me Barrera had been tested in the previous six months, which doesn't prove someone is clean, but Turinabol is the sort of drug you can't hide. 3
The testing technology changed in recent years, making Turinabol easier to detect at far lower levels and for longer than had been the case. Great little footnote: the person who developed the more sensitive test is Grigory Rodchenkov. 4
Rodchenkov was the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and the mastermind behind the Russian doping scandal. He was featured in the documentary film "Icarus" and is currently in hiding. He might be a cheat, but the man makes a good test. 5
None of this exonerates Barrera. Sometimes athletes make inexplicably stupid decisions. And sometimes a trainer or a friend hands an athlete a concoction and says "take this - it's legal," and the athlete uses it. But it's worth keeping an open mind in lieu of more facts. 6
And not for nothing, this is one benefit of MLB's policy (like WADA's) of identifying the drug. The NFL does not, so it's impossible to measure the credibility of someone's denial. 7
