(RADIO.COM Sports) MLB plans to crack down on pitchers using foreign substances this season.
In a memo sent to all 30 teams Wednesday, which was first obtained by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the league outlined how it plans to prohibit the use of foreign substances in several different ways.
Among the measures are increased monitoring by compliance officers, inspections by a third-party lab of baseballs taken out of play and spin-rate analysis.
Players are subject to discipline by the commissioner whether evidence of doctoring the ball is found before or after games.
The compliance officers will monitor the dugouts, clubhouses, tunnels, batting cages and bullpens, according to the memo, while baseballs taken out of play will be provided to the commissioner’s office for further inspection. That will cover both suspected and random baseballs evaluated by the third-party lab, which will also search for the type of substance being used.
MLB will use Statcast data to compare spin rate to career norms.
The steps MLB is taking to prohibit the use of foreign substances comes after a report this past offseason surfaced in which a former Los Angeles Angels clubhouse employee claimed he provided substances for visiting players such as Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, Corey Kluber and Adam Wainwright in addition to a handful of Angels pitchers.
The employee, Bubba Harkins, was suing the Angels for defamation after the team terminated him last March. Harkins believes he has been cast as a “public scapegoat” as MLB began to further its crackdown on the use of banned substances.
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