Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Just when you thought you might have heard your last PED news for a while, the Tampa Bay Rays official site is reporting that 17 year old pitching prospect Jose Disla has tested positive for PED use. He has been suspended for 50 games beginning at the start of the Dominican Summer League season.
While there isn’t a ton of information available on Disla, we can guess a couple of things already. He is in all likelihood a promising young pitcher trying to push to get his professional career going faster. Disla is very young but a lot of young pitchers move up extremely fast and that has to be a very tempting situation for a young man. If he adds a little more strength and a little more endurance, maybe he’ll get to that next level just a little faster.
I can’t speak from experience in such situations but as a fan I can say that it bothers me to some degree but perhaps not as much as with some. The fact that PEDs are against the rules and should never be used is a given and could never be argued against. At least it couldn’t be argued against from a solid standing. It is wrong because of the future damage to both the health of the athlete and the game they play.
In the case of Disla, he will learn his lesson and move on with his career. There have been several young prospects busted for PED use that went on to recover nicely from it. Hopefully Disla will be another one of those and perhaps he will tell his story. Maybe his story will cause at least one other athlete that he knows to think twice before using. For the case of someone who has made mistakes such as this, helping prevent someone else from following the same path should be a chosen calling. Best of luck to Disla and I hope that he puts this behind him for good.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
