Blue Jays prospect Martinez suspended for 80 games

On Sunday, he received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for performance-enhancing substance Clomiphene, Major League Baseball announced.

Martinez found out about the suspension on Saturday night and immediately informed Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider.

“Extremely disappointed and surprised,” Atkins said pregame in Cleveland. “We fully support the program and want a level playing field, and we’ll work with him to ensure he’s learned from this. Obviously, a big mistake. We’ll support him when he returns and through the process.”

Martinez said in a statement that he had been prescribed a fertility drug by a doctor in the Dominican Republic during the offseason that resulted in the positive test. Atkins said he believed the test occurred before Martinez joined the Blue Jays in Toronto earlier in the week.

“… I took full responsibility for my actions and accepted my suspension,” Martinez said. “I want to apologize to my teammates in both Buffalo and Toronto, the Blue Jays organization, and most importantly, the fans who have supported me during my career.”

The Blue Jays, like every team in baseball, work with both MLB and the MLB Players’ Association to help educate international players on the league’s rules surrounding performance-enhancing drugs and banned substances. The Blue Jays also have their own internal program that adds supplemental education surrounding both topics.

“I feel like there’s a lot of it in place to ensure that all of it has been downloaded by Orelvis,” Atkins said. “I think this actual experience is the true learning for him, but I think it’s continuing to focus on ways that he can improve as a human, player and teammate, and there’s lots of opportunity for that throughout our structure.”

The suspension comes at the worst possible time for a Blue Jays team that entered play on Sunday six games below .500 after dropping seven of its past nine games. The team hoped that Martinez, who was hitting .260 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs with Triple-A, would provide some much-needed pop to a lineup that’s hit the second-lowest amount of homers in MLB.

“In difficult times, you’ll see a lot of finger-pointing and excuse-making. Fortunately, we haven’t seen that, which gives us the confidence that we can still get it turned around,” Atkins said. “We’ve had a big setback over the last five days [and] we’ve dug ourselves into a little bit of a deeper hole. There’s still time for us to turn things around; it’s dependent on a winning streak obviously but we’re still capable of that.”

Added Schneider: “We all signed up for this — whether it’s coaches or players. It’s been frustrating that we haven’t played up to our expectations.”

Schneider described his reaction to Martinez’s suspension as “surprised and disappointed,” but the skipper said that he was happy with the amount of maturity that the 22-year-old showed about the suspension.

“He knows he made a mistake and we’re going to support him through it,” Schneider said. “The fact he’s taken responsibility for it is a good first step. … He’s a young kid but he understands he made a mistake.”

Martinez won’t be able to play with any of the team’s affiliates while he’s suspended, and he will spend that time at one of the Blue Jays’ facilities. His suspension will be over on Sept. 23 — five days before the regular season ends.

As Atkins was addressing the media, a Progressive Field clubhouse attendant packed up Martinez’s bag of gear and disappeared into the bowels of the stadium. Five days ago, the arrival of that equipment in Toronto signaled a hopeful sign of things to come.

“We know the fans’ disappointment and we share that,” Atkins said. “It has been a very difficult time when you have those expectations and you’re not fulfilling that.”