The Oakland A’s pitcher blames a contaminated supplement but he is still suspended for 80 games.
Frankie Montas, the starting pitcher for the Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics, was having a break-out season this year. But Montas’ incredible year has effectively come to a premature ending due to an 80-game suspension.
The reason for his suspension is a failed drug test for the selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) known as Ostarine. Ostarine is prohibited under the MLB Joint Drug Agreement.
SARMs act like anabolic steroids for all intents and purposes. They exhibit some of the same beneficial performance-enhancing effects and they also display some of the same adverse side effects. However, the chemical structure differs from traditional androgens.
Frankie Montas atttributed the Ostarine positive to a contaminated dietary supplement purchased from a U.S.-based nutrition store.
Montas has denied knowingly using any prohibited performance-enhancing drug (PED). He alleged that Ostarine entered his body through the consumption of a contaminated dietary supplement. Montas suggested that he knows exactly which supplement was the culprit in a statement released through the MLB Players Association (MLBPA).
“While I never intended to take any prohibited substance,” Montas said, “I unfortunately and unknowingly ingested a contaminated supplement that I had purchased over-the-counter at a nutrition store here in the United States.”
Dietary supplement contamination has been a major problem for drug-tested athletes in a variety of sports. Several prohibited substances have been openly sold in sports nutrition stores. This has resulted in cross-contamination with other sports nutrition supplements that are not supposed to contain any prohibited substances.
It is unclear if Montas has submitted the supplement in question to an analytical laboratory for chemical identification. It would seem that MLB or MLBPA would independently obtain and test samples of the product.
Montas will be forced to sit out 80 games without pay regardless of the veracity of his contaminated supplement claim. Montas will forfeit almost half of his $560,000 annual salary as a result of the suspension.
It is an unfortunate outcome for Montas who was experiencing the best year of his MLB career.