Atlanta Outfielder Profar Suspended 80 Games for PED Violation

Jurickson Profar, who made his first All-Star Team as a Padre in 2024, signed a free-agent deal with the Braves this offseason.

Jurickson Profar of the Atlanta Braves looks on during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego on March 30, 2025. Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar, one of the prized free-agent additions of the 2025 MLB offseason, has been suspended 80 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance. The suspension began Monday and will run through late June, with the first game he is eligible to return coming on June 29 versus the Philadelphia Phillies.

Per MLB, Profar, 32, tested positive for chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a performance-enhancing substance (PEDs) that violates the league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. While some MLB suspensions are punitive only for the length of the ban, this one carries more weight due to it involving PEDs. Profar will not only miss the 80 games, but he’s also ineligible for the 2025 MLB postseason, even though the ban will end several months before the playoffs begin.

The Braves, who entered Monday with MLB’s worst record at 0-4, released a statement upon hearing the news.

“We were surprised and extremely disappointed to learn that Jurickson Profar tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Prevention and Treatment Program,” Atlanta posted on social media. “We fully support the program and are hopeful that Jurickson will learn from this experience.”

Profar released a statement saying he unknowingly ingested the banned substance but also took full responsibility and accepted MLB’s decision.

“Today is the most difficult day of my baseball career,” he said.

Profar signed a three-year, $42-million deal in January with Atlanta after a breakout season with the San Diego Padres in 2024. In his 11th season, Profar made his first All-Star Game appearance, won his first Silver Slugger, and received NL MVP votes. He set career highs in home runs (24), RBI (85), and runs (94), in addition to posting the best batting average (.280) and OPS (.839) of his career.

He was an on-base machine for a Padres team whose 93 wins were their most since 1998, as San Diego was one victory shy of making the NLCS. By leading the Senior Circuit on hit-by-pitches (18), drawing 76 walks and hitting .280, Profar finished second in the National League with a .380 on-base percentage.

Profar’s breakout came after he failed to meet expectations in the first decade of his career, as he was the highest-touted prospect in the game. Before his 2013 rookie season, Profar was ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect by MLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus. He debuted for the Texas Rangers as an infielder but underperformed with both his glove and his bat.

He spent a total of nine years with the Rangers’ organization, including the 2014 and 2015 seasons, which he missed entirely due to injuries. He then joined the Oakland Athletics in 2019, had a first stint with the Padres from 2020-22, the Colorado Rockies in 2023, and then rejoined the Padres later in the 2023 season. He had the classic profile of a journeyman player until finally putting everything together in that 2024 season.

The Braves saw him as the missing piece to getting them back to the World Series after a glaring hole in left field a year ago. Atlanta started eight players at the position, and only three of those are still on the Braves’ 25-man roster. Further compounding Profar’s 80-game absence is that Atlanta is still without MVP winner Ronald Acuna Jr., who suffered a second ACL tear during the 2024 season and isn’t expected back for another month or so.

The Braves, who won the 2021 World Series and whose 294 victories since the 2022 season are the second-most in MLB, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers (314), have not looked anything like the dominant team they were over the last few years. Atlanta was swept in its opening series—by Profar’s former team in the Padres, no less—to give them an 0-4 mark ahead of a three-game set versus the reigning world champions, those Dodgers.

Atlanta’s offense was already struggling with Profar in the lineup as it was shut out on both Saturday and Sunday, and the Braves’ team batting average of .148 was the second-worst in all of baseball. Profar played a part in the offensive struggles, going just 3 for 15 (.200) to start his Braves’ tenure, with zero extra-base hits.

Playing on a $12-million salary this season, Profar is set to lose out on over $5.9 million in compensation, which is nearly six times the amount he made last season with San Diego.