Atlanta Braves Andrew McKirahan Suspended for PEDs

Early this morning Ken Rosenthal reported the Braves reliever Andrew McKirahan had been suspended PED use.

McKirahan is the second Braves reliever to receive a suspension for PEDs this year testing positive for Ipamorelin.

On April second we learned that newly reacquired righty  Arodys Vizcaino had tested positive for Stanozolol.  That suspension was followed by suspensions for former Braves starter Ervin Santana on April 10th and Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia on April 11th for the same substance.

 PEDs and The Braves

McKirahan had been one of the finds of the off season for the Braves bullpen.  After being claimed off waivers from the Cubs the lefty established himself as a dependable arm who didn’t panic under pressure and threw strikes.  Under MLB’s PED rules the suspension is without pay and would prohibit him from being on this year’s post-season roster.  The Braves can replace McKirahan on the roster and a call-up will probably be announced this morning.

McKirahan bounced around the Cubs farm system since  2011 hampered by TJ surgery causing him to miss parts or 2012 and 2013. He had a good 2014 posting a 0.99 ERA in 23 games in Hi A before moving to AAA where he posted a 3.45 ERA and 1.186 WHIP in 21 games. It wasn’t enough for the Cubs to put him on the 40 man roster and the Braves grabbed him in the rule 5 draft last December.

John Hart told David O’Brien that the Braves would look outside the organization but would probably have to promote from within at least initially. One potential replacement Brady Feigl is on the DL with an elbow impingement and limiting those internal options. Hart went on to say this was a blow to the Braves pen and a disappointment.

"“From a club perspective we’re obviously disappointed in this one,” Hart said of McKirahan’s suspension. “From a depth standpoint, we lost Shae Simmons to Tommy John (elbow surgery in January), and Vizcaino was suspended. And Feigl, it looks like potentially he may need Tommy John. This (McKirahan suspension) is sort of a double whammy in that we lost a guy we were looking at in the bullpen and we’ve lost some other weapons.”"

According to Mark Bowman McKirahan’s test was conducted  before he became a Brave.