LOWELL – One of the Red Sox' top minor league prospects has made his return to the diamond.
Fresh off an 80-game-suspension, 22-year-old Michael Chavis made his season debut with the short-season, Single-A Lowell Spinners Monday night. The third baseman went 0-for-3 with a walk in his return.
"I've spent about 80 games waiting for this so I was really happy to be out there again," Chavis said after the game. "I haven't been in an actual game since the fall league so I tried to stay under control."
While results in game one of his return weren't exactly what Chavis wanted, he was the first to realize that his road back is a process.
"I was trying to be process-oriented, I've talked about that a lot," Chavis said. "At the end of the day, in 10 years, no one is going to be like, 'Dude that night in Lowell? He stroked.' So I'm just trying to think about the end goal."
Chavis was suspended back in April after testing positive in a drug test for Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHMCT), which is on the banned substance list. Following the news, he released a statement in which he denied knowingly taking DHMCT.
"One thing that concerned me most [about the news] was the people I know. If you don't know me, you don't have a reason to believe what I have to say. That's fine, I can get over that," Chavis said. "I was more concerned about the people that know me, who understand me as a person. I wanted to make sure they knew this was never something I would do."
The Georgia-native said he spent a lot of the 80-day suspension investigating how DHMCT showed up on his test.
"I've done a lot of research on the actual drug itself and specifically on MLB testing with this drug, and I believe there are some holes with the testing, potentially," Chavis explained. "I went through everything that I could've possibly put in my body, I was like a mad scientist. I would look up stuff like 'What if I took a Zyrtec combined with this, would it show up as this?'"
"I wouldn't do it," he added. "I'm scared of needles. I wouldn't. Plain and simple, I wouldn't do it. So I just wanted to voice it as well as I could to the people who were supporting me and didn't know me personally so they maybe could get a glimpse of what was going on."
Besides scientific investigations, Chavis said the toughest part of the suspension was being away from baseball. The 2014 first-round draft pick explained why it was so hard being forced away from the game.
"I think it's one of the reasons I have success, I just thoroughly enjoy playing baseball," Chavis said. "So when I got home every day I would be like,'What now?' And I'll tell you one thing, I'm not going to read. I didn't go to college; I'm not going to read. So yeah, it's very fulfilling to be back."
As for what's next for Chavis, it remains to be seen. Before the suspension, Chavis owned a slash line of .251/.317/.455 with 56 home runs in 355 minor league games. He was rated as the Red Sox' No. 1 prospect and 79th overall by MLB.com. He was on Double-A Portland's roster when the suspension came down.
"I'm not too concerned about when I move up. My end goal is obviously Boston this year," Chavis said. "Before this all happened I wanted to be up by the All-Star break. Obviously, that's not going to happen but I have the same goal. I know what I'm capable of. I know everything I did last year was all me."
