Jurickson Profar gets 162-game PED suspension after appeal resolved
Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar will miss the entire 2026 season after his appeal regarding a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs was resolved.
Profar will serve a 162-game suspension for testing positive a second time and will not be eligible for the playoffs in 2026.
Major League Baseball announced earlier this month that Profar tested positive for exogenous testosterone and its metabolites. He is the sixth player to receive a 162-game ban for PED use since MLB increased the penalty for double offenders to a full season in 2014.
Profar, 33, will lose his entire $15 million salary for 2026. He was expected to alternate regularly in Atlanta’s starting lineup between the outfield and designated hitter, perhaps as the No. 2 hitter behind Ronald Acuña Jr.
Atlanta signed Profar to a three-year, $42 million contract in January 2025 after he had a career year with the San Diego Padres.
An All-Star in 2024, Profar was suspended for 80 games on March 31 following a positive test for chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone that promotes the production of testosterone. He later released a statement saying, “I would never willingly take a banned substance, but I take full responsibility for it and accept MLB’s decision.”
Profar’s 2025 suspension came after the fourth game of the season and after his return in early July, he hit .245/.353/.434 with 14 home runs and 43 RBIs while playing left field.
Braves first-year manager Walt Weiss said earlier this month that he expects Atlanta’s spot at DH to be “pretty fluid” this season without Profar.
Weiss said he felt “really good” that the Braves signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to a two-year, $23 million contract in the offseason. Yastrzemski, Acuña and Michael Harris are expected to be Atlanta’s starting outfielders. Profar might have shared time with Yastrzemski in left field on the days when star catcher Drake Baldwin was the DH.
Jeff Passan of ESPN and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
