NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball boosted its drug test total 25 percent in 2017, ending with the World Series.
The sport's new independent public administrator said there were 10,237 tests of players on 40-man major league rosters, including 8,235 urine samples for performance-enhancing substances, stimulants and the drug DHEA, and 2,002 blood samples for human growth hormone.
That was up from 8,281 tests over the previous year, which included 6,634 urine samples and 1,647 blood samples.
Two major leaguers had positive tests for banned stimulants, one each for Adderall and D-Amphetamine. The players were not identified because the penalty for first offenses for stimulants and the drug DHEA is six additional urine tests over the next year, rather than a suspension.
There were five positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs that resulted in 80-game suspensions: Pittsburgh outfielder Starling Marte (Nandrolone), Philadelphia pitcher Elniery Garcia and Houston pitcher David Paulino (both Boldenone), Cleveland pitcher Joseph Colon (SARM LGD-4022) and San Francisco pitcher Joan Gregorio (Stanozolol).
There were 106 therapeutic-use exemptions (TUEs) for otherwise banned drugs: 103 for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and one each for hypertension, idiopathic hypersomnia (a sleep disorder) and azoospermia (a condition in which semen contains no sperm). That was down from 107 TUEs last year, which included 105 for ADHD and one each for hypertension and hypercalciuria (calcium in urine).
Dr. Thomas M. Martin, a retired U.S. Army colonel who is a former director of the Defense Department's drug testing and program policy office, was hired as IPA to replace Dr. Jeffrey M. Anderson, who had been the IPA since 2012 and died on Aug. 30.