Mitre back in the Bigs; owning up to his PED test

July 22, 2009 by Jason@IIATMS

Expectations for Sergio Mitre were not very high, to put it mildly.• First start in the Majors since 2007.• Recovering from Tommy John surgery.• Coming off a 50 game suspension for taking a banned substance.• A career never highlighted by long stretches of good health and/or dominating stuff. Except, there he was last night, taking the hill for the Yankees, filling in for an injured C-M Wang. Cue John Feinsand:

Great job by Sergio Mitre tonight. Who knows if he’ll prove to be the answer to the Yankees’ fifth starter situation, but we’ve seen unlikely heroes such as Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon step up in years past, so why not Mitre?

The Yankees aren’t asking this guy to be their savior. Throw five or six innings of three-run ball every five days and let the rest of the team take care of the rest. That’s it. I think Mitre can do it, but only time will tell.

And furthermore, from Filip Bondy:

Mitre came up from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he had posted a 2.32 ERA that might be more promising if everyone didn’t remember his less than sterling outings with the Marlins back in 2007, part of a 10-23 career mark with a 5.36 ERA in five major league seasons. Since then, the news was even worse: Tommy John surgery and a suspension for a positive drug test.

Mitre went out there, threw his 90-mph sinkers and kept the Yankees in the game. He threw strikes, worked fast. He hung in there for 5-2/3 innings, gave up three earned runs, good enough.

“Good enough”. “Yep. That just might work.” All the Yanks need from their #5 starter right now“is he be merely good enough to keep the team in the game.” Mitre might be able to do just that. I hope so.

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Now… to backtrack on the suspension story for a moment, as a refresh. I’ll direct you one of two postings I wrote on the subject:

Mitre took an over-the-counter supplement from GNC which contained Andro, despite no claims on the label. Recently, he had this to say about his suspension:

“Long story short, I tested positive for Andro,” Mitre said. “It was a substance that came out of a supplement I bought over the counter at GNC. I was taking an illegal steroid unknowingly because I bought it over the counter. All of that was just a big surprise, shock, when they told me that I tested positive for steroids I said, ‘Well, I wasn’t taking anything.’

“They asked me to send everything that I was taking, and I did, and they tested every single supplement and it came out that a supplement that I bought at GNC is what caused the positive test.”

“Did I take it? Yes. Did I know I was taking it? No. It’s done and over with. I did my 50 games. I have to move on, what else can I say?”

Say what you will, but he owned up to his transgression, served his time and has moved on. The cynics among us might scoff at his “unknowingly” excuse and believe me, I have a few toes squarely in that camp. However, after watching Manny be celebrated for his return, I’m quite fine with everything I have heard out of Mitre and commend him for taking responsibility for his actions… unlike others who simply choose to blame their doctors.

As a tease, I am preparing a list of 20 Questions to send to Mitre. If there is anything you’d like to ask him, use the comments below and I’ll try to include it.

 
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